ROGER. WOLCOTT 

BY WILLIAM LAWFCENCE 



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ROGER WOLCOTT. Illustrated with Portraits. 
i2mo, $i.oo ftei. Postage extra. 

LIFE OF AMOS A. LAWRENCE. With extracts 
from his Diary and Correspondence. With Portrait 
and Illustrations. Crown 8vo, $1.50. 

VISIONS AND SERVICE. Discourses delivered in 
Collegiate Chapels. i6mo, $1.25. 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY 

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ROGER WOLCOTT 



BY 



WILLIAM LAWRENCE 



BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

MDCCCCII 



THE LIBHArtYO?^ 
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COPYRIGHT 1902 BY WILLIAM LAWRENCE 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



Published November^ igos 



TO 

EDITH PRESCOTT WOLCOTT 

WISE STRONG AND GRACIOUS 

THE CONSTANT SUPPORT 

OF HER HUSBAND 

ROGER WOLCOTT 




PREFACE 

[N writing this short Life my 
object has been to bring be- 
fore the people of Massachu- 
setts, whom he loved and who 
loved him, the personality of Roger Wol- 
cott. Mr. Wolcott's life was passed in 
the midst of his friends, associates, and 
relatives. He therefore had no need, as 
he had little taste, to correspond by letter. 
He kept no diary or journal. The mate- 
rials for this little book were gathered 
from official records and newspaper re- 
ports, from the memories of my own 
friendship of over forty years, and from 
the reminiscences and kind suggestions of 
others of his friends, political associates, 
and kindred. 

W. L. 
Cambridge, October i6, 1902. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. Ancestry i 

II. Two Brothers 17 

III. A Harvard Student 32 

IV. A Citizen 51 

V. Lieutenant-Governor .... 77 

VI. Governor 118 

VII. The War with Spain . . . .161 
VIII. The Last Year 206 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Roger Wolcott in 1896. From a photo- ^ 
graph by Chickering . . Frontisfiece 

Roger and Huntington Wolcott. From 

a photograph taken about 1853 • • • • ^^ 

Roger Wolcott in 1867. From a photo- 
graph taken early in his college course . 36 

Roger Wolcott in 1893. From a photo- 
graph by Chickering '^6 

Governor Wolcott, in 1898, giving to the 
Ninth Massachusetts Regiment its com- 
missions for the U. S. Service . . . .182 



y 



/ 



ROGER WOLCOTT 



CHAPTER I 

ANCESTRY 




!HEN the good ship Mary and 
John dropped anchor in Bos- 
ton harbor on the 30th of May, 
1630, she had in her company 
Henry Wolcott, Esq., his wife and sons, 
of Galdon Manor House, Tolland, Somer- 
setshire. Very few of his Puritan breth- 
ren had left their homes at greater sac- 
rifice than he. Henry Wolcott was a 
country gentleman, accustomed to the 
surroundings, dignity, and authority of his 
class. His home was endeared to him by 
its family associations, its age, and solid 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

comfort. Even to this day Tolland sug- 
gests to the visitor something of its ancient 
glory. As one enters the hamlet, he passes 
the ivy-mantled church; beneath the 
shadow of the heavy tower rest the bodies 
of the Wolcotts. Beyond is the manor 
house, an ancient pile of stone, massive 
without; within, the walls are ornamented 
with antique carvings. The ceiling of the 
spacious dining-hall is heavily groined; 
above the mantelpiece are shields bearing 
the family coats of arms; and along the 
walls run Latin inscriptions, of which one 
translated reads, " This is the family of the 
just; may this spot be preserved to all 
eternity." 

Henry Wolcott, whose family had been 
loyal members of the Church of England, 
had been drawn into sympathy with the 
Puritans. His convictions finally led him to 
join with his brethren in the upbuilding of 



ANCESTRY 

a colony where he and they could worship 
God according to the dictates of their own 
conscience. Being over fifty years of age, 
he had but little taste for change and ad- 
venture, and the bonds of old associations 
must have drawn hard upon him. Never- 
theless, he and his family left their an- 
cient home, and on the 20th of March 
sailed for Boston. After a voyage of 
seventy days they entered the harbor. 
As they looked from the deck upon the 
roughly timbered shores and the wooden 
houses of the town, they must have re- 
called with a pang of homesickness the 
quiet vale and rich fields of Tolland. 

Mr. Wolcott first settled in Dorchester; 
later he removed with Mr. Wareham's 
church to Windsor, Conn., and there 
made his home and became a " chief 
corner-stone." In the first general assem- 
bly held in Connecticut in 1637 he was 
3 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

made a member of the lower house, and 
in 1643 was elected a member of the 
house of magistrates, and was annually 
elected thereto until his death. 

Henry Wolcott's son, Simon, was in 
1673 captain of the Simsbury Traine Band, 
and in 1678 one of the "Townsmen" or 
selectmen of Simsbury. He married 
Martha, a sister of Governor Pitkin of 
Connecticut, and in 1679 Roger Wolcott 
was born. After his marriage with Sarah 
Drake, whose family came from Plymouth, 
England, counting among its members the 
famous admiral. Sir Francis, Roger Wol- 
cott entered upon a life of public service. 
He first filled the offices of selectman, 
representative to the general assembly, and 
justice of the peace. In the expedition 
against Canada in 171 1 he was commis- 
sary of the Connecticut stores. Step by 
step he rose to be a member of the coun- 
4 



ANCESTRY 

cil, a judge of the county court, a judge 
of the superior court, then deputy gov- 
ernor, and chief justice of the superior 
court. With the rank of major-general 
he was second to Sir William Pepperell 
in command of the expedition to Cape 
Breton, which resulted in the capture of 
Louisburg. In 1750 and for four succes- 
sive years he was governor of the colony. 
In' 1754 he retired from public life and 
devoted his leisure to literature and "to 
the reading of the Scriptures, meditation, 
and prayer." 

In his funeral sermon upon Governor 
Roger Wolcott a century and a half ago 
Parson Perry struck a prophetic note in 
his analysis of his character: — 

" At the head of the government Roger 

Wolcott was a wise and an able governor; 

at the head of an army a general true to 

his king and country; on the bench a just 

5 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

and upright judge ; and at the bar an able 
lawyer. In his own person he was frugal, 
chaste, and temperate. View him at the 
head of his family, he was a kind husband 
and a good father and a compassionate 
master. He was a steady professor of the 
Christian name, a constant and devout at- 
tendant upon public worship and holy ordi- 
nances. He was able to make a good 
figure in conversation, among the learned, 
upon almost any subject, and had a good 
acquaintance both with men and things. 
He was very easy of access; no forbidding 
air sat upon his countenance; free, affable, 
and unaffected in conversation, he had a 
peculiar talent in making himself agreea- 
ble to all sorts of company, so far as inno- 
cency would permit." 

It fell to Oliver, son of Roger Wolcott, 
to represent the family in the critical 
events preceding the Revolution and dur- 
6 



ANCESTRY 

ing the early years of that war. Like his 
father, he was soldier, lawyer, and jurist, 
and held high office. In early manhood 
he commanded a company of volunteers in 
the northern army in the war against the 
French. Upon the organization of the 
county of Litchfield in 1751 he was ap- 
pointed the first sheriff. He was a repre- 
sentative to the general assembly, a mem- 
ber of the council, judge of the court of 
probate for the district of Litchfield, and 
chief judge of the court of common pleas. 
He was a member of the continental con- 
gress, with the exception of two years, 
from 1775 to 1784 ; and was one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. 

Loyalty to his country called him a 
second time into military service. Upon 
the breaking out of the war of the Revo- 
lution Congress appointed him a commis- 
7 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

sioner on Indian affairs for the northern 
department. In his spirit of patriotism 
he, as is seen by the following incident, 
was well supported by his family. Until 
the eve of the Revolution a leaden eques- 
trian statue of George III. had stood in 
Bowling Green in the city of New York. 
As soon as hostilities began the Sons of 
Liberty overthrew the statue, and the 
body of the hapless king was transported 
to the home of Mr. Wolcott, at Litchfield, 
where it was melted into bullets by his 
children and their friends. 

In 1777 Oliver Wolcott was appointed a 
brigadier-general, and in 1779 he was com- 
missioned by General Trumbull major- 
general of the militia of Connecticut. He 
was lieutenant-governor of Connecticut 
from 1786 to 1796, and governor in 1797, 
the year of his death. 

These offices show the esteem in which 
8 



ANCESTRY 

General Wolcott was held by the country 
as well as the State. Indeed, no other man 
in Connecticut during this critical period 
discharged so many and varied public 
duties as he. 

Oliver Wolcott gave to the public ser- 
vice two sons. The first, Oliver, served 
in Congress and in the army. In 1789 he 
received from President Washington the 
appointment of auditor of the treasury. 
Two years later he was made comptroller, 
and in 1795 he succeeded Alexander Ham- 
ilton as secretary of the treasury, and thus 
became a member of Washinofton's cabi- 
net. Here he continued during the ad- 
ministration of President Adams, resigning 
in 1800 and accepting a seat upon the 
United States bench as a judge of the 
circuit court of the second district. In 
1 8 15 he returned to his home. Two years 
later the people of Connecticut called him 
9 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

to the office of governor, and elected him 
to that position for ten successive years. 

Frederick Wolcott, also a son of Oliver, 
served his State in the legislative coun- 
cil and on the bench. He repeatedly re- 
fused to be nominated for governor by 
the prevailing political party, but as a 
private citizen fulfilled many important 
public duties. He was a member of the 
corporation of Yale College, and an active 
supporter of movements in behalf of edu- 
cation and charity. 

The marriage of Frederick Wolcott to 
Elizabeth Huntington united two families 
of high character and remarkable public 
spirit. 

Elizabeth Huntington's grandfather, 
Jabez Huntington, who had served sev- 
eral years as a member of the general 
assembly, soon after his graduation from 
Yale College entered the West India 

lO 



ANCESTRY 

trade, and by an honorable business career 
laid the foundation of one of the largest 
fortunes of that day. Before the breaking 
out of the Revolution, Jabez Huntington 
owned a large amount of shipping, and, as 
the signs of war increased, it became clear 
that his fortune was endangered. The 
question arose as to what his action should 
be in the crisis. 

In the year 1774 he and his wife called 
the members of their family together, and 
after earnest prayer for guidance, he told 
them that he and their mother had been 
considering their duty to their country in 
relation to the almost certain loss to their 
fortune and worldly prospects. He added 
that before making a final decision which 
would bring them into hostility to " their 
dear motherland," he wished his children 
also to count the cost. Then deliberately 
addressing each one by name, he asked the 
II 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

question : " Are you ready to go with your 
parents and share our risks and our re- 
wards ? " All pledged themselves to their 
country. That the pledge was kept is 
revealed in the history of Jabez Hunting- 
ton and his five sons. 

The father was appointed by the assem- 
bly one of the two major-generals of the 
militia of the State of Connecticut, and in 
the following year he received command 
of the entire state militia. 

Of the sons, Jedediah, as colonel in com- 
mand of a regiment, joined the army at 
Cambridge just one week after the battle 
of Lexington. Promoted brigadier-gen- 
eral at Washington's request, he took part 
in all the active campaigns of 1777 and 
1778, and endured the hardships of Valley 
Forge. In December, 1780, his was the 
only Connecticut brigade that remained 
in the service. 

12 



ANCESTRY 

Ebenezer also went to Cambridge at 
the news of the battle of Lexington ; he, 
too, served as brigadier-general in the 
war, and was later a member of Con- 
gress. 

Zachariah was a major-general, and 
Andrew was commissary of brigade dur- 
ing the war, and judge of probate. 

Joshua, the father of Elizabeth Hunt- 
ington, who married Frederick Wolcott, 
marched immediately after the battle of 
Lexington as lieutenant, with a hundred 
Norwich minute-men, to the scene of 
action, and joined Putnam's brigade. He 
went with Putnam to New York, where 
he was promoted to the rank of colonel. 

From the marriage of Frederick Wol- 
cott and Elizabeth Huntington was born 
Joshua Huntington Wolcott, the father of 
Roger Wolcott, late governor of Massa- 
chusetts. 

13 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

When J. Huntington Wolcott was a 
boy, Boston was attracting the attention 
of the country by the increase of its busi- 
ness and its large commercial enterprises. 
Young Wolcott came to Boston and en- 
tered the counting-house of A. and A. 
Lawrence as senior apprentice. At twen- 
ty-six years of age he became a partner, 
and remained with the firm, becoming 
senior partner, until its dissolution in 
1865. Throughout his business career, 
Mr. Wolcott was recognized as a man of 
high character and ability. He inherited 
the public spirit of his ancestry. There 
was exceptional grace and dignity in his 
bearing. His uniform courtesy to his 
employees and the errand bo3^s from other 
offices, as well as to his business asso- 
ciates, lingers in the memories of men in 
active business to-day. 

Mr. Wolcott married Cornelia, the 
14 



ANCESTRY 

daughter of Samuel Frothingham, on 
November 12, 1844, and by her had two 
sons, Huntington Frothingham and Roger. 
This historic sketch has been so full of 
dates and names of public offices as to 
suggest a dry chronicle. Reading be- 
tween the lines, however, we discover 
character, patriotism, chivalry, and sacri- 
fice in the public service. The name of 
the Wolcott family has not been created 
by one or two great men, but throughout 
their whole history of over two centuries 
and a half in this country, each generation 
has sustained the good name and the high 
character of the past. The members of 
the family, blessed with competence, have 
not felt that great spur to enterprise, the 
necessity of earning a living. What work 
they have done, therefore, and what service 
they have rendered, have been prompted, 
partly, to be sure, by a pure desire to sus- 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

tain the fair name of the family, but espe- 
cially by that deep sense of obligation to 
serve God and man which has been at 
the foundation of the character and ser- 
vice of the English people, and especially 
of the Puritan stock which sought this 
coast. At the same time, the family has 
always sustained in its chivalric spirit, 
courtesy, and delicacy of feeling, much of 
the temper which is associated, not with 
the Puritan, but with the Cavalier of 
English history. 



16 




CHAPTER II 

TWO BROTHERS 

IHEN Roger Wolcott was born 
in Boston, July 13, 1847, he 
came into a home of singular 
charm. 

His father had a deep love of nature 
and of out-of-door life. His mother was 
a woman of beauty and rare culture, a 
wide reader, familiar with the poets, and 
at the same time practical and thoughtful 
of the interests of the household. Hunt- 
ington Frothingham, the elder son, was 
born eighteen months before Roger. 

The house in Boston where they passed 
the winters was on Boylston Street, facing 
the Common. The home which parents 
17 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

and children most enjoyed was, however, 
upon the slope of Blue Hill, about eight 
miles from Boston. The house stands 
upon the edge of the woods which cover 
the hill; from the lawn, the land slopes 
down to the valley, and to the plain of 
Readville, through which the Neponset 
River winds, and in the distance are spread 
in rich damp green the Canton meadows. 

When he was three years old, Roger's 
mother died. Her oldest sister, Harriet, 
came to take charge of the household, 
and later, as his father's second wife, be- 
came a mother to the boys. 

In early childhood they were taught at 
home by their mother, or in company with 
a few of their friends' children. On reach- 
ing boyhood they entered the private 
school of Mr. Dixwell in Boylston Place, 
Boston, just around the corner from their 
house. 

i8 




ROGER AND HUNTINGTON WOLCOTT 



TWO BROTHERS 

The two boys were almost insepara- 
ble. Together they played their childhood 
games; together they learned to pray, for 
it was a religious home. In company with 
their father they mounted their ponies and 
galloped over the roads and through the 
fields. Together they climbed Blue Hill; 
they picknicked and fished at Ponka- 
poag Pond. The country folk knew the 
boys well, and they, catching the demo- 
cratic spirit of their father, liked all the 
people. 

Bound as they were in common inter- 
ests and affections, there were sharp con- 
trasts in features and character. Hunt- 
ington's curly chestnut hair, brown eyes, 
open face, and well-built frame, his self- 
confidence and impulsive nature, marked 
him out as the natural leader. Roger was 
younger, less confident of himself; his jet- 
black hair and luminous gray eyes, his 
19 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

sensitive face and sparer form, revealed 
a more nervous temperament, one that 
needed time to develop. 

Huntington was the leader not only of 
his brother but of the school. Trouble 
with his eyes had kept him back, so that 
he had the chagrin of being in his younger 
brother's class; he had, however, the ad- 
vantage of greater age, which figures high 
in athletics and the respect of boys. He 
was frank, generous, courteous, and of 
sensitive moral organization. Roger was 
the better scholar, and held his own with 
other boys in their games; but when 
Huntington burst through the crowd with 
the football, Roger was lost in admiration 
of his brother. 

Life ran happily on until 1862. Then 

the drum-beat in the streets warned the 

boys that war was in the air. That the 

youth of the land might be well prepared, 

20 



TWO BROTHERS 

DixwelPs school, like many others, was 
formed into a military company. Twice 
a week they drilled under the supervision 
of an army officer. Huntington, the rec- 
ognized leader of the school, was made 
captain. If to some of the other boys 
there were elements of play in the march 
and countermarch, it was serious work to 
the captain. He took command and by 
his character held command. No other 
boy could keep discipline as he could. 

His father, ever active in public service, 
had accepted the position of treasurer of 
the Massachusetts branch of the Sanitary 
Commission. The talk at home was there- 
fore full of battles and the wounded, of 
comforts and clothing for the sick, of the 
departure of regiments, and the return of 
the bodies of the dead. The plain of 
Readville was converted into a great camp, 
where regiments were drilling, preparing, 

21 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

and waiting for service at the front. The 
boys were sentwith delicacies from the gar- 
den for the men and officers, some of whom 
were relatives and family friends. Such 
experiences could not but strike fire in the 
hearts of Huntington and Roger, for theirs 
was the martial spirit of their ancestry. 

In June, 1862, the transport Daniel 
Webster, which under the Sanitary Com- 
mission had brought from the South some 
sick and wounded soldiers, was about to 
return. Although he was only sixteen 
years old, Huntington succeeded in per- 
suading his father to let him go with the 
ship and pass a few weeks as a surgeon's 
assistant. They entered by way of Chesa- 
peake Bay the Pamunkey River, and landed 
at " White House," about twenty-three 
miles from Richmond. The enthusiasm 
for McClellan was then high, and the fa- 
miliar cry was " On to Richmond ! " The 
22 



TWO BROTHERS 

people of the North had not begun to 
realize the magnitude of the task before 
them. Living in the midst of the soldiers, 
riding, as he visited the Massachusetts 
troops, to within a few miles of Richmond, 
Huntington got a taste of war, its horrors, 
its glories, and its great and noble motive. 
He heard the guns of battle, saw the 
wounded brought to the rear, and helped 
to give them relief. Bidding farewell to 
his former tutor, James Jackson Lowell, 
who was soon to fall, he returned in the 
transport, which was filled with wounded 
soldiers. 

As he took up his studies in the autumn 
and commanded the company of DixwelPs 
boys, there were manifest a seriousness of 
purpose and an inner strength which were 
maturing his character. Soon the deep 
conviction that it was his duty to enlist 
was made known to his parents. He was 
23 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

but seventeen years old: they could not 
think of letting him go. He pledged his 
brother Roger, however, not to oppose 
his desire. The fire burned within him; a 
year passed, and again he urged his sense of 
duty. The pressure became so strong that 
at last his parents agreed that, if he would 
wait one year more, and if the war was not 
then at an end, they would give their con- 
sent. Huntington was impulsive, but, 
more than that, he was a youth of will and 
deep conviction. While he acceded to 
his parents' wish and gave himself to his 
studies and music, he could not keep si- 
lence. " Dear mother," he wrote, when 
she was away from home, " I shall feel 
dishonored all my life; you must let me 
go." As the year came toward its close, 
and the birthday approached which would 
make him nineteen and at the same time 
bring the decision, Huntington, obedient 
24 



TWO BROTHERS 

as he was, became more serious and im- 
patient. A month before his birthday, 
when his parents were in New York, 
he received the offer of a commission in 
a black regiment. His mother, not yet 
aware of the offer, wrote him, pressing 
the argument that the war was near its 
end, that he was young, and that he could 
serve his country later. " After the war 
is over, we shall need wise men, pure pa- 
triots in the councils of the country, and 
high-minded statesmen, men of large cul- 
ture, refinement of taste. Christian integ- 
rity and virtue, more than the soldier." As 
she was writing thus, her boy was mailing 
her a letter urging permission to accept 
the commission, and ending, " Dear mo- 
ther, you must let me go, I feel so about 
it. I think it would be sweet to die for 
my country." 

With parents patriotic and wise, and a 
25 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

boy of such spirit, there could be but one 
result. 

He received from Governor Andrew a 
commission as second lieutenant in the 
Second Regiment of Cavalry, Massachu- 
setts Volunteers. For the last time Hunt- 
ington came to school and commanded 
the company of boys. They were still 
boys, and he, though young in years, 
had suddenly sprung into manhood. The 
uniform enhanced his beauty and strong 
though graceful form. The school gave 
him his sword ; the belt was buckled 
over the red sash; and Lieutenant Wol- 
cott, modest, simple, and true, went forth 
in the spirit of his fathers, as did thousands 
of youth in those years of the nation's 
stress. His last words to Roger were : 
" Keep jolly, and be all you can to father 
and mother." 

He was first sent to the camp at Read' 
26 



TWO BROTHERS 

ville. In a few days the order came for 
him to join without delay his regiment, 
which was with Sheridan in the Shenan- 
doah Valley. He went to Winchester : 
Sheridan had left. Soon learning the 
position of his regiment, he reached the 
camp of General Gibbs, and was assigned 
to Company I of the Second Massachu- 
setts Cavalry. Within a week he, with 
his regiment, was in the midst of the con- 
flict with Early's forces in the Shenan- 
doah, and took part in the brilliant battles 
which resulted in the surrender of General 
Lee and closed the war. At the request of 
General Gibbs, he was appointed by the 
President an aide-de-camp upon his staff. 
Two letters from his general reveal the 
temper of the youth. After the battle of 
Five Forks, General Gibbs wrote to his own 
mother, Mrs. Gibbs, a letter which he had 
no reason to think that others would ever 
27 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

see. " We have just passed through one 
of the most terrible and decisive battles of 
the war. We have turned Lee's right 
and captured seven thousand prisoners 
and nine pieces of artillery. . . . Out of 
five hundred men, I have lost fifteen offi- 
cers and seventy-five men. . . . Hunting- 
ton Wolcott, who was acting on my staff, 
behaved nobly, like a Wolcott; went into 
the thick of the fight, and brought down a 
lot of prisoners. He is just as earnest and 
ardent as ever, in action as well as ex- 
pression." 

On May 9th, 1865, he wrote from the 
headquarters of the First Cavalry Division 
to Huntington's father: "I consider his 
pluck as most extraordinary — and he has 
been so fortunate as to have joined in the 
most eventful campaign of the war — the 
one that sealed the fate of the hated Con- 
federacy. He has passed through it un- 
28 



TWO BROTHERS 

scathed. From frequent and close obser- 
vation of his conduct, I have noticed 
particularly his gallantry at Dinwiddie 
Court House, Five Forks, Clover Hill, 
April 9th, and on various other occasions, 
and have often refused him permission 
to 'go in ' when his ambition prompted 
him, but duty did not require him to 
do so. 

" A favorite with my staff, and congen- 
ial to all with whom he is brought in 
contact, he is full of ' snap ' when he 
thinks things are not going right. 

" He has had a terribly tough baptism 
in military service, but has come out of it 
with increased vigor and vitality of both 
body and mind." 

Soon followed the grand review of the 

army at Washington. For two days the 

line of veterans, with toughened bodies, 

tanned skins, faded uniforms, and tattered 

29 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

flags, marched in review. Huntington's 
father was there; but he was not the only 
one to mark the beauty of the boy. Per- 
haps his short service made his uniform 
brighter than the others; his face was 
fresher and more youthful; at all events, 
he caught attention. Others noted and 
wrote of "the radiant beauty of young 
Wolcott." 

Thus passed the war and its glory. 
There was little else to be done except 
to be mustered out and come home. Even 
when Huntington was in the great pro- 
cession, typhoid fever had begun its work. 
Within a few days he was very ill. The 
one hope of life seemed to be in his escape 
from the malarial air of the Potomac to 
the northern climate. He was borne 
quickly home. As he was laid upon his 
bed beneath the shadow of Blue Hill, and 
breathed the odor of the pines, and heard 
30 



TWO BROTHERS 

familiar voices, he revived; but the dis- 
ease did not release its hold. " My dar- 
ling Roger; Roger, my love to the boys," 
were his whispered words. 

On the 9th of June, 1865, another Wol- 
cott, patriot and soldier, a chivalrous boy, 
passed on. 

Again the schoolboys met, and in his 
home in Boston gathered around the bier 
of Huntington, their friend and leader. 

His mother had well said, " After the 
war is over, we shall need wise men, pure 
patriots in the councils of the country, and 
high-minded statesmen." Huntington, to 
whom she wrote, had passed on. Roger 
was left. 



31 




CHAPTER III 

A HARVARD STUDENT 

[T was natural that the sick- 
ness and death of Huntington 
should have borne heavily on 
the strength of his father and 
mother. The effect upon Roger was as 
that upon a tender sapling when its sup- 
port has been withdrawn. He drooped, 
and showed such physical and nervous 
depression as to cause anxiety and com- 
pel his parents to take him to Europe. 
There they remained for more than a 
year. In England they ran down to the 
manor house at Tolland, and visited 
the graves of the ancient Wolcotts, or 
Walcotts; for in England the latter form 
32 



A HARVARD STUDENT 

was and is the more common. Appreci- 
ative as they were of their English an- 
cestry, they were steadfast Americans. 
While in London, Roger's mother gave 
him a seal ring with the family coat of 
arms. The seal-maker mentioned that 
the arms were identical with those of the 
English Walcotts. A few days later, a 
member of the Walcott family, a man of 
distinction, called upon Mr. Wolcott to 
compare notes upon the subject. Being 
convinced that the American branch was 
from his own family, he invited Roger, 
then a boy of seventeen, to lunch with 
him, in order to give him copies of the 
family records. In the course of conver- 
sation this gentleman said, " Mr. Wolcott, 
if you intend to hitch on to the English 
branch of the family you must change the 
spelling of your name." " Sir," said Roger, 
" we do not intend to hitch on to any fam- 
33 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

ily." " Then/' was the answer, " the pur- 
pose of this interview is misunderstood; " 
and the English representative of the fam- 
ily tore the records in pieces. He had 
met America in one boy. Roger was 
sent back the next day by his mother to 
apologize, and the incident was closed. 

Walking in Switzerland confirmed Ro- 
ger's gaining strength, and study in Paris 
prepared him for college. As his class 
from Dixwell's school had entered Har- 
vard during his absence, he joined them 
in the sophomore year. It is difficult for 
a young man entering college the second 
year to make a position for himself in the 
class. However, his group of old school- 
mates received Roger into their club 
table. He was fond of out-of-door life, 
a strong walker, and a good horseman. 
While enthusiastically interested in all 
athletic events, he took little active part 
34 



A HARVARD STUDENT 

in the college sports. Of excellent ability, 
he worked harder as a student than his 
intimate friends. He read more widely 
than was the custom of students in those 
days. His interests were in the lan- 
guages, history, and literature. He did 
some work on the only college paper of 
the time, " The Harvard Advocate," and 
was one of the active organizers of the 
O. K., a society which drew into its circle 
men of literary as well as social tastes. 
He was elected into the social clubs, and 
took an active interest in the Hasty Pud- 
ding. 

He thus gradually and unconsciously 
increased the circle of his acquaintance 
and friends. 

A feeling of loneliness and his sensitive 

nature sometimes threw him into moods 

of deep depression. He then assumed in 

social life an almost forced manner of 

35 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

lightness and gayety. His brother's mem- 
ory was a constant source of inspiration. 
In his senior year he wrote: "I feel it 
more every day that every high aspiration, 
every yearning after nobleness, which I 
sometimes feel, is to be traced directly to 
Hunty's influence and example; and that, 
if there is ever developed in me any spark 
of true worth, it will be his memory that 
kindles it." 

Of this inner life, however, his class- 
mates knew nothing. To them he was 
always frank and true, bright and alert, 
with a sense of humor, unfailing in his 
courtesy, and always ready to give full 
credit for the acts and motives of others. 
At the same time they realized that there 
was a reserve in his nature, which lent 
dignity and weight to his bearing. 

He therefore rose quietly and steadily to 
recognition in the class. Standing ninth 
36 




^T. 20 



A HARVARD STUDENT 

in rank, a member in the senior year of 
the Phi Beta Kappa, and a good speaker, 
it was natural that when the class came to 
the elections he should be the only man 
seriously considered for orator. 

In 1870 the Class-Day exercises were 
held in the First Parish Church. In the 
front pews sat the members of the class; 
behind them and in the galleries were 
the typical Class -Day auditors, — fresh 
young girls in brilliant dress, solemn dons, 
proud parents, and distinguished guests. 
The noble head of General Sherman, a 
hero of the day, was conspicuous in the 
throng. 

Roger Wolcott arose to make his first 
public speech. If a young man is real and 
simple, he speaks out of his inmost con- 
victions at such a time. Such a man was 
the orator of the day. His hair was black 
as jet, his face pale, then flushed; his 
Z7 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

straight, tall figure stood firm, his voice 
was clear and strong. As he spoke, the 
great heat of the day was forgotten, and 
the people listened intently. It was not the 
speech of maturity, but of youth. It was, 
however, direct, sincere, and strong, and, 
being a part of his inner life, it rang true. 
Several times in later years General Sher- 
man asked his Boston friends, " When are 
we to hear from that young man, Wolcott, 
who spoke on Class-Day ? " 

No doubt the sentiment of the day threw 
a glamour over the scene. Still, even after 
the lapse of thirty years, the speech has 
warmth and life, for it reveals some of the 
ideals of Roger Wolcott in his youth. 
Harvard Memorial Hall was rising from 
its foundations; and the nation had just 
observed one of its first memorial days. 

The orator named " enthusiasm of heart 
and earnestness of mind " as the two requi- 
38 



A HARVARD STUDENT 

sites of character in the manhood of the 
times, and said: — 

" The head and the heart are peers, and 
neither can be exalted without debasing the 
other. . . . Enthusiasm is of the heart, not 
of the head. It is a means, not an end. It 
is a tool given us with which to work, a tool 
which we shall do well to guard from rust, 
— a talent which we must not wrap up in 
a napkin. Enthusiasm is a quality through 
which a man does with his might what- 
ever his hand and his head find to do. It 
is because it is so often applied to ignoble 
uses, because what the heart finds to do 
might so often better be left undone, that 
we grow to regard it with suspicion and 
distrust. . . . 

" It is to secure this vital principle, this 

intentness of resolve and action, that we 

so often hear of the necessity of infusing 

young blood into the councils of the old. 

39 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

The increasing burden of years seems to 
drag heavily upon the heart, and to 
threaten constantly to stifle its beatings. 
Men are too often petrified by the slow- 
dropping mists of experience laden with 
disappointment and failure, and ever the 
heart hardens first. Listlessness and indif- 
ference take the place of earnestness and 
vigor. That baleful apathy which Ruskin 
calls the greatest mystery of life, settles 
down upon the soul, deadening and de- 
stroying. The man forgets his youth's 
ideal, lowers his aspirations to the attain- 
ment of mediocrity, and sinks, often with 
scarce a struggle, to the dead level which 
is so marked a characteristic of the time. 
He who escapes this danger is the man in 
whose breast the sacred flame still glows, 
who pursues the nobler aims of his riper 
years with the same exuberance of vitality, 
with the same abandonment of self, with 
40 



A HARVARD STUDENT 

which, as a child, he gave chase to the 
butterfly fancies of the hour. . . . 

" All honor to the intellect in its proper 
sphere. To depreciate its dignity would 
be presumption indeed. It is through his 
intellect that man is but little lower than 
the angels; but it is by his heart that he 
partakes of the nature of God. . . . 

"When once our faith in other men's 
virtue is lost, it is no wonder if we make 
no advance in virtue ourselves. . . . There 
must be that within us which claims kin- 
dred with the nobility of others, or the 
magnet of their influence will be to us no 
more than a piece of bent iron. Distrust 
of the motives of others is often tanta- 
mount to a confession of the insincerity of 
one's own. Cynicism, like the mistletoe, 
saps the very life of that on which it 
fastens. . . . 

" But it is when our self-interest allures 
41 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

us from our original path, when we let 
slip from our memory Harvard's grand 
old motto, ' Veritas/ and wander farther 
from the influence of that force which can 
alone through life draw us onward and 
upward, it is then that the heart only can 
set us right. . . . 

"Young as we are, we have lived in 
grand and stirring times. Scarce one of 
us but has felt the blood tingle with a sen- 
sation never before experienced when, at 
the drum-beat, as if by enchantment, the 
hero stood forth in the person of father, 
brother, friend. Who does not remember 
the hurried parting, the anxious days of 
doubt, the joyous return ? Or perchance 
to some of us a treasured sword or musket 
and a proud though heart-rending memory 
may alone remain as talismans of blessed 
influence for our future lives. 

^' Strange indeed would it be if we 
42 



A HARVARD STUDENT 

allowed ourselves to forget the force of 
their glorious example. And yet can we 
deny that there is a widespread danger 
throughout the country that this will be 
the case ? Money has again become a 
rival with honor for the foremost place in 
the nation's regard. Oblivion of the past 
is deemed the only security of the pre- 
sent. . . . 

^' Why has the nation set apart a day in 
the sunny springtime to deck with flowers 
and garlands the graves of our fallen sol- 
diers throughout the land ? Is it with the 
thought of honoring the dead that this is 
done ? I think not. Earthly flowers, how- 
ever fair, laid upon cold marble or sense- 
less sod, can hardly be thought to bestow 
much of honor on those upon whose brows 
the hand of God has placed the immortal 
wreath. It is, as I think, that in the still- 
ness of the cemetery we may hear with 
43 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

more distinctness than in the busy turmoil 
of our daily lives that ' voice that cometh 
from behind ' — from the grave of the 
buried past, from the spirits of the noble 
dead, saying, ' This is the way, walk ye in 
it; ' the way of devotion to country and to 
principle, the way of hardship and self- 
sacrifice, the way of life through death. 

" It is for a kindred purpose that in yon- 
der old playground the foundations have 
been laid of a stately structure to stand a 
lasting memorial to the sons of this uni- 
versity who gave their lives to insure their 
country's salvation. Is it for their sake 
that the trowel and hammer are so busily 
plied where once the click of the bat and 
the shout of the players startled the echoes 
from the neighboring chapel ? Let us not 
deceive ourselves. It is for us, for the 
hundreds who yearly pass from these 
gates, to carry the ideas which they have 
44 



A HARVARD STUDENT 

here acquired to their distant homes. The 
influence of association is strong, and well 
may the heart beat with a quicker pulse 
and the soul be thrilled with nobler senti- 
ments within walls hallowed by such 
sacred memories. 

" If at any time indifference and an al- 
most pardonable disgust tempt us to leave 
undone the little which individual effort 
may do to rescue our national politics from 
corruption, must not the thought flash into 
our minds of the heroism here commemo- 
rated ? We perhaps may find it irksome 
even to cast a vote for what we believe to 
be our country's good. 

'' ' But these, our brothers, fought for her, 
At life's dear peril wrought for her, 
So loved her that they died for her.' 

" Nothing can insure the success of the 
great experiment which is here tfying, 
nothing can enable us to preserve our 
45 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

national existence, save the intelligence, in- 
tegrity, and loyalty of the educated classes. 
The dangers which threaten us are great 
and constant. If Intelligence stands aloof 
we are lost. No educated man is justified 
in shrinking from the responsibility which 
is thrust upon him, nor is it possible for 
any American citizen to wash his hands of 
his country. There is no such thing as 
neutrality in citizenship. He who is not 
with his country is against her. The ab- 
sence of a vote from the side of Intelligence 
adds a new sinew to the arm of Ignorance, 
which is ever raised menacingly against 
the nation's honor and security. 

" Our duty then to our country is positive 
and grave. If we discharge it with the 
full-hearted loyalty displayed by those who 
have gone before us, we may rest assured 
that no laurel which we can bind about 
the brows of our alma mater will she 
46 



A HARVARD STUDENT 

wear with more pride than that won in 
maintaining the dignity and honor of the 
repubHc. On the other hand, if we neg- 
lect this duty, in so doing we disregard the 
example of the past, the demand of the 
present, and the entreaty of the future. . . . 
" So live that when in after years your 
hand once more grasps the hand of friend, 
he may see the soul of the boy looking 
forth from the eyes of the man; that he 
may feel that you are still the same — not 
changed, but grown." 

On Commencement Day he had a part 
and gave an oration entitled " The Early 
Franciscans." Then with his classmates he 
received his degree from the hands of the 
young president, Charles W. Eliot, who for 
the first time presided at the Commence- 
ment exercises. 

At this time Harvard was still a college. 
47 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

The great leadership of the new president 
had hardly been felt. The choice of studies 
was small, and the many lines of interest 
which now stimulate the students and turn 
their thoughts toward congenial pursuits 
did not exist. Except for the informal 
talk of a few teachers there was no ap- 
peal to the young men to enter public life 
and very little to kindle their interest in the 
great national questions of the day. Per- 
haps the strongest stimulus in this direc- 
tion given to the students in those days 
was an address, not of an American citizen, 
but of Tom Hughes, who, when a guest of 
James Russell Lowell, spoke to a mass 
meeting in old Massachusetts Hall. He 
expressed his surprise at finding how little 
interest the men of education took in the 
public life of the great republic. He told 
the students of the leadership of university 
men in the national life of England, and 
. 48 



A HARVARD STUDENT 

called upon them to consecrate themselves 
to public service. 

Upon his graduation Mr. Wolcott en- 
tered the law school, but was attracted by 
an invitation from the college, which he 
accepted, to teach for a year in French 
and History. The next year he passed in 
the law office of Lothrop, Bishop, and 
Lincoln. From 1872 to 1874 he was a 
student in the Harvard law school, taking 
his degree of bachelor of laws. He was 
admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1874. 

On September 2, 1874, he was married 
in Boston to Edith Prescott. 

In the middle of the eighteenth century, 
before the capture of Louisburg, General 
Roger Wolcott of Connecticut was second 
in command to Sir William Pepperell. 
There also served in Nova Scotia under 
Sir William Pepperell a young lieutenant 
from Groton, Mass., William Prescott. At 
49 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

the news of the battle of Lexington, he, 
like the Huntington brothers from Con- 
necticut, reported at Cambridge as colo- 
nel of a regiment of minute-men. His 
record at Bunker Hill and elsewhere in 
the Revolutionary War is familiar. His 
son, Judge Prescott, was the father of the 
historian, William Hickling Prescott, 
whose son, William Gardiner Prescott, of 
Pepperell and Boston, was the father of 
Mr. Wolcott's bride. Sympathetic in all 
their associations as well as in character, 
Mr. and Mrs. Wolcott began their happy 
life together by traveling for a year in 
Europe. 



so 




CHAPTER IV 

A CITIZEN 

JHEN Roger Wolcott returned 
from Europe in 1875 at the 
age of twenty-eight, he was 
at the opening of active life. 
Handsome, a favorite in social life, of 
excellent ability and education, he was the 
only son of a successful business man. 
Under no necessity to work, with a love 
of letters and of outdoor life, he might, 
had he been of a different temper, have 
settled down as a dilettante in literature 
or have given himself up to sport and plea- 
sure. Such an alternative never occurred 
to him. There was that quality in him, 
which fortunately is in the great body of 
51 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

American youth, that shrank from the 
thought of an aimless existence, and that 
esteemed a life of work and usefulness the 
only one worthy of a citizen of a republic 
or of manhood. The spirit of industry 
was in his blood, and the sense of duty and 
obligation to serve mankind had come 
down to him through generations of wor- 
thies. Whatever bit of work he under- 
took he threw himself into with ardor and 
enthusiasm. 

The firm of A. and A. Lawrence, after 
half a century of honorable success, had 
dissolved, and Mr. J. Huntington Wolcott, 
except for the care of his own property 
and his duty as a director of various cor- 
porations, had retired from business. A 
commercial career had, however, little in- 
terest for his son. 

Roger Wolcott opened an office in 
Pemberton Square, from which he moved 
52 



A CITIZEN 

later to the Suffolk Bank Building on Tre- 
mont Street, and entered upon the prac- 
tice of law. The outlook was promising; 
he had many friends, and a persuasive way 
of stating a case. His mind was well 
stored, clear, and accurate. 

Society, however, is sensitive to condi- 
tions of character within it, and when the 
people feel that there is a young man of 
public spirit who is willing and able to 
take responsibilities, they gather around 
him and call him out to service. 

Mr. Wolcott soon found that the papers 
upon his desk were not all strictly legal, 
and that not all the business hours of the 
day were given to the law. 

As his father retired from this or that 
position, directors and stockholders dis- 
covered that the son was able to fill his 
father's place, and the young man often 
found himself in the midst of business 
53 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

men of a former generation. He became 
a director of the Stark Mills, of the Boston 
and Providence Railroad, and of the New 
England Trust Company, a trustee of the 
Suffolk Savings Bank, and a vice-presi- 
dent of the Massachusetts Hospital Life 
Insurance Company. He declined an 
offer to be treasurer of a large manufac- 
turing company. 

The public, social, and charitable organ- 
izations laid hold of him. He came into 
personal touch with the poor as a visitor 
of the Boston Provident Association and 
a member of the board of managers of the 
Boston Dispensary. As trustee of the Eye 
and Ear Infirmary and of the Massachu- 
setts General Hospital he took an active 
interest in the administration of these in- 
stitutions. As he passed from bed to bed 
in the surgical and medical wards, and 
then visited the insane asylum at Somer- 
54 



A CITIZEN 

ville, his gentle courtesy, his frame glow- 
ing with health, and his bright word and 
smile were from week to week a happy 
memory to the patients. 

When there was danger that the ancient 
landmark, the Old South Church, would 
be torn down, he was active in saving it; 
he presided at the meetings of the preser- 
vation committee, and was later a mem- 
ber of the Old South Corporation. He 
delivered a lecture in one of the Old South 
courses upon the historian Prescott He 
found congenial employment as a trustee 
of the Boston Public Library, and gave 
much time to the work of the Social Sci- 
ence Association. 

His interest in New England history 
caused the Massachusetts Genealogical 
Society to turn to him for literary services. 
He took much interest in the Massachu- 
setts Historical Society, was active as a 
55 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

member of committees, and wrote a me- 
moir of James Murray Robbins and other 
papers. 

He became a vestryman of King's 
Chapel, where he was a member and con- 
stant worshiper after his marriage. 

When elected in 1885 as an overseer of 
Harvard College he was a young man to 
have received such honorable recognition. 
It was a grateful service to him, and he 
gave to the work his best thought and 
time. One incident gave him an oppor- 
tunity to test his abilities in swa3dng a sen- 
sitive and critical audience. The over- 
seers at the time felt that the students 
were given too great liberty, and resolved 
to urge upon the faculty rather stringent 
regulations as to hours and habits of work. 
The students and many members of the 
faculty thought that the proposed restric- 
tions were unnecessary and unwise. A 
56 



A CITIZEN 

feeling of mutual suspicion was aroused. 
Mr. Wolcott was asked to address a mass 
meeting of students and members of the 
faculty, to answer questions, and to ex- 
plain the position of the overseers. It was 
not an easy task. His frankness, however, 
disarmed criticism, and his sense of hu- 
mor and his quick repartees gained the 
sympathy of the students. The comment 
of " The Lampoon " tells the result: — 

" Roger Wolcott, Esq., of Boston, who 
presented the overseers' view of the recent 
restriction votes at the college conference 
meeting, Tuesday evening, succeeded, as 
no one had before done at these meetings, 
in bringing the large body of students to 
look on matters as do the healthy, broad- 
minded, and successful members of the 
alumni (of whom Mr. Wolcott is an ex- 
cellent type) . On his appearance on the 
platform, the mysterious 'Board of Over- 
57 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

seers,' so long the butt of the ' Lam- 
poon's ' jokes, and the ' Crimson's ' ' fresh- 
man ' editorials, was materialized at once 
in a vigorous representative of the active 
alumni superior to both students and 
faculty, and able to carry out their reason- 
able demands. The throng of students 
that crowded the large lecture -room 
greeted him with long-continued applause, 
and notwithstanding the attempts of one 
or two Harvard Union debaters to stir up 
a snarl near the close, Mr. Wolcott was 
frequently interrupted with applause, and 
left amid the unmistakable signs of good- 
will in his audience." 

In 1888, the development of the differ- 
ent departments of the university, espe- 
cially of the Lawrence Scientific School, 
brought upon the overseers for the first 
time the question of the enlargement of 
the franchise, by which graduates of the 
58 



A CITIZEN 

professional schools could be given the 
ritrht to vote for overseers. Mr. Wolcott 
wrote and signed a report urging the en- 
largement of the franchise in such clear 
and effective argument and language, that 
later reports upon the subject have had 
little to add. 

It might seem as if these were enough 
public interests to consume the time of a 
man who was trying to make his way in 
the law. Roger Wolcott was, however, 
a citizen who from boyhood had been 
impressed with a sense of duty to his 
country. As soon, therefore, as he reached 
the age of twenty-one, he took up the 
active duties of citizenship. He believed 
that all citizens should do their part, not 
only in voting, but in political work. He 
was active at the caucuses, and distributed 
ballots at the elections. He cast his vote 
with the utmost conscientiousness. 
59 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

It was soon clear to those who were 
interested in good city government, that 
Roger Wolcott had in him the possibilities 
of excellent public service. Within two 
years of the time that he had begun work 
as a lawyer, he was nominated and elected 
a member of the common council of 
Boston. He was again elected, serving 
in 1877, 1878, and 1879. ^^^ consistency, 
courtesy, and fairmindedness so gained 
for him the confidence of men of all par- 
ties, that even then he was spoken of as a 
possible non-partisan candidate for mayor. 
In 1882, 1883, and 1884, he served in the 
lower house of the state legislature. He 
worked and spoke in the campaign of 
1882 against the election of Benjamin F. 
Butler as governor. 

As a member of the joint standing 
committee on public charitable institu- 
tions, he showed force in connection with 
60 



A CITIZEN 

the Tewksbury Almshouse investigation 
by Governor Butler. Upon his retire- 
ment from the legislature, he had won 
the confidence of the whole house. 

During these years, he had followed the 
course of the two great national parties. 
The Republican party, with which by in- 
heritance and conviction he was allied, 
and which had been in power since the 
war, was showing the demoralizing influ- 
ences of success. The narrow escape 
from defeat by the Democratic party led 
by Mr. Tilden in 1876, and the pure ad- 
ministration of President Hayes, had been 
helpful toward reform. To the uphold- 
ers of pure government, and to the increas- 
ing body of mugwumps and independents, 
there was, however, ample cause for dis- 
content. In 1880 Garfield and Arthur 
were elected. 

During the next four years the condi- 
61 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

tions in the party seemed to many to 
become worse. The management of the 
party was in the hands of men who, for 
political and financial integrity, had not 
the confidence of the country. The man 
who stood to many of the people as the 
most conspicuous representative of these 
elements was James G. Blaine. When, 
therefore, the Republican Convention of 
1884 met and, in spite of the protest of 
a large number of delegates and the open 
statement that a fraction would bolt his 
nomination, Mr. Blaine was nominated, 
Mr. Wolcott refused to be one of those 
to support the nomination. Mr. Wolcott 
was a Republican whose loyalty to the 
party was not dependent upon the per- 
sonality of the man at the head of the 
ticket. Four years before, when his 
friends were forming Bristow clubs be- 
fore the national convention, he, though 
62 



A CITIZEN 

he admired Mr. Bristow, and would have 
been glad to see him nominated, refused 
to join a club. He believed in giving 
the convention freedom of action in the 
choice of candidates. The nomination 
of Mr. Blaine was to him, however, more 
than a question of personality, — there 
was an issue of morality. The support of 
the Republican candidate meant to him 
the support of unworthy and evil elements 
in the national government. His deci- 
sion to break from his political associations 
caused him much distress. He believed 
then, as he did through life, that the 
American people have high moral stand- 
ards, and that the party which expects to 
hold their confidence must not only have 
high principles in its platforms, but must 
select for its leaders men in whose politi- 
cal honesty and high character the people 
can trust. As a Republican, therefore, 
^3 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

and for what he believed to be the best 
interests of the Republican party, he voted 
for the candidate in whose political integ- 
rity he had confidence, Grover Cleveland. 
This action of Mr. Wolcott was signifi- 
cant. He was not by nature or taste an 
independent; he believed in political par- 
ties; he was a strong Republican, and 
indorsed the general principles of the 
Republican party. He had been steadily 
gaining in influence in the party in Massa- 
chusetts, had won many friends, and had 
so conducted himself in office as to make 
promotion almost certain if he stood by 
the party. He had begun to catch the 
eye of the public. Political oflice as such 
had no attractions for him; but as a means 
of public service he esteemed public 
office. However, to him the issue was 
plain and his duty clear. He had plenty 
of useful work ahead, and no one by taste 
64 



A CITIZEN 

and education was better fitted to be a 
happy private citizen. He declined to be 
a candidate for Congress on the Independ- 
ent-Democratic ticket, when an election 
was almost sure. He still claimed to be 
a good Republican. At the next caucus 
his vote was protested, but he pressed his 
claim, and was so far successful that he 
was sent in 1885 from ward 11, Boston, 
as an alternate delegate to the next Re- 
publican State Convention, and as a dele- 
gate took part in its proceedings. 

At this time, the health of his father, 
Mr. J. Huntington Wolcott, was begin- 
ning to fail, and Mrs. Wolcott had been 
delicate for years. In fact, life had not 
been the same to them since Huntington's 
death, and they both looked upon Roger, 
their only son, as the support and comfort 
of their declining years. With what filial 
piety he gave himself to that service is 
65 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

familiar to all who knew them. His de- 
votion to his parents is, perhaps, the most 
beautiful feature of his whole life. So 
complete was it, that some of his intimate 
friends were at times disposed to chafe, 
feeling that he was unduly hampered in 
the prosecution of interests which might 
lead to his future influence or position. 

When he was asked to run as a Repub- 
lican candidate for mayor of Boston, with 
a probability of election, he declined on 
account of his father's health. Besides 
taking the full responsibility of his father's 
affairs, he attended to all the petty ques- 
tions of the household and the estate at 
Blue Hill. No public business was so 
pressing that it could draw him away from 
anything which he felt would be of plea- 
sure or comfort to his parents. In fact, it 
may be said that during the last few years 
of his father's life, Roger considered his 
66 



A CITIZEN 

father's comfort his chief business, and all 
other duties, private, professional, or pub- 
lic, subordinate to that. 

The quiet hours passed with his parents 
gave him opportunity for reading and writ- 
ing. In 1887 he wrote for the " Tran- 
script " a careful article on the Constitu- 
tion adopted in 1787. He was very fond 
of poetry, and learned much by heart, 
which he repeated with deep feeling. His 
reading of the Bible was most tender and 
impressive. As his father's strength waned, 
Roger's devotion became more and more 
complete, until he seemed to fill the offices 
of doctor, chaplain, and nurse; and when 
the end came in 1891 and the care ceased, 
it was, with all its relief, as if one great 
privilege of his life had been taken from 
him. 

In 1884 the election of Mr. Cleveland, 
67 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

the first Democratic President since the 
civil war, was a warning to the Republi- 
can party that a new generation was ris- 
ing, that certain old issues dear to the Re- 
publicans were dead, and that there was 
discontent with the leadership of the party. 
The country was tired of eloquent plat- 
forms and wanted men. Mr. Cleveland 
soon showed himself to be a man of force, 
and struck out in lines that drew the 
attention of the thoughtful young men of 
the country. The impression was abroad, 
certainly in some of the Eastern States, 
that the Republican party was hidebound, 
that it insisted on an unreasonable tariff, 
that it was governed by the corporations, 
and especially that, being in the hands of 
men like Senator Quay of Pennsylvania, 
who was at that time chairman of the na- 
tional Republican committee, nothing in 
the way of high principle or strong leader- 
68 



A CITIZEN 

ship on the great issues could be expected 
of it. The Republican party and its man- 
agement in Massachusetts seemed to reflect 
something of the same spirit. Massachu- 
setts had ever since the war been reck- 
oned as a Republican stronghold, but there 
had risen from the ranks of the once de- 
spised Democratic party a young Harvard 
man, William E. Russell, who, by his elec- 
tion as Governor in 1890, won a great Dem- 
ocratic victory. It was clear that he had 
been elected by the votes of men who 
once voted the Republican ticket or by 
young men who, of Republican parentage, 
were rising up to make a new Demo- 
cratic party. Again Russell was elected, 
and young men like John F. Andrew and 
Sherman Hoar, sons of great Republican 
leaders of the war, were going to Con- 
gress as Democrats. 

It was time that something should be 
69 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

done to stem the tide by the younger men 
of the Republican party who believed in a 
forward movement and higher political 
standards. Beginning with an informal 
gathering, the Republican Club of Massa- 
chusetts was formed; its list of members 
soon ran into the hundreds. The critical 
question was whom should they select as 
their standard-bearer; who among the 
younger Republicans had the courage and 
tact, the position and force, to call the at- 
tention of the people to the movement and 
to show them that they too had a leader. 

They turned to Roger Wolcott at the 
time that his father's death left him free 
to enter public life again, and he became 
the first president of the Young Men's 
Republican Club of Massachusetts, now 
the Republican Club of Massachusetts. 

In January, 1891, the club had its first 
public dinner. Upon the president de- 
70 



A CITIZEN 

volved the duty of striking the first note 
and of revealing to the public the motives 
and objects of the club. Were there in 
him and the members the elements of 
leadership? It must be borne in mind 
that, although there was much discon- 
tent in some quarters, the public con- 
science had not yet been aroused, and men 
with political futures had not spoken in 
clear tones. The speech of Roger Wol- 
cott, unconscious as he was of the fact, 
marked his entrance into public life and a 
new political era, at least for the State of 
Massachusetts. In truth, some waves of 
his strong voice swept through the coun- 
try. The speech is prophetic ; its charac- 
teristics are the characteristics that were 
his to the end. It was the word of a high- 
minded man who was in earnest; it rang 
true; it revealed a full confidence in the 
intelligence and character of the Ameri- 
71 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

can people; it appealed, not to their pas- 
sions, but to their consciences and high 
traditions. After expressing the loyalty of 
the club to Republican principles and re- 
calling the great deeds of the party in and 
since the war, he said: — 

" Such memories are a curse if they 
serve but to unnerve the arm and to 
slacken effort. Unless they be an incen- 
tive to lofty courage and noble emulation, 
they become by contrast a stigma to the 
present generation and brand it as unwor- 
thy of that which is so rapidly passing 
away. 

" No word of mine shall ever be uttered 
to depreciate that robust and virile inde- 
pendence in politics which holds country 
and honor above party, which while acting 
within party lines ever strives to secure 
the best in men and measures, and, often 
buffeted and defeated, never ceases to 
72 



A CITIZEN 

wage war upon dishonesty and chicanery, 
using party as a weapon but never wearing 
it as a yoke. 

" But the independent who prides him- 
self upon being a total abstainer, until the 
day of election, from all lot or part in po- 
litical movements, should be treated as 
those who skulk when the bugle sounds. 
It was not the arduous rigors of the Alps 
nor the repeated assaults of Rome's trained 
legions that broke the nerve of Hannibal's 
victorious army, but the soft vices of Ca- 
pua, where sloth and ease took the place 
of vigilance and strife, and the sutler's tent 
supplanted the general's guidon in the sol- 
dier's affection. 

" Is this to be the fate of the Republi- 
can party? It must not be. It must make 
its appeal, as of old, to the intelligence and 
patriotism of the country. It must rally 
to its standard the recruit and drum out 
73 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

the mercenary. The loss of thousands of 
votes in this State was due to the Pennsyl- 
vanian who is still chairman of the national 
committee. . . . 

" The Empire State substitutes a Hill 
for an Evarts in her highest office, and 
when he takes his seat in the Senate he 
will present an interesting subject for com- 
parison with his able and upright Repub- 
lican predecessor. . . . 

" We look to the Republican party as 
the bulwark against the menace of irra- 
tional silver legislation. This battle is not 
yet fought out to an issue. . . . Congress 
may put a false bottom in the quart pot or 
bore out the core of a pound weight and 
fill it with cement, and declare that the 
new measures shall still be called a quart 
or a pound, and this may satisfy him who 
sells, but no power on earth can make 
him who buys satisfied therewith. In like 
74 



A CITIZEN 

manner, Congress may say, not without a 
sacrifice of national honor, that seventy or 
eighty or ninety cents' worth of silver 
shall be called a dollar, but in the ex- 
changes of the world this fiat money dic- 
tum will have just about as much effect 
as a paper blockade. On this issue the 
position of the Republican party must be 
sharply defined. 

" We believe that wherever, through 
bribery, intimidation, or fraud, elections 
fail to express the will of the legally qual- 
ified voters, there is a failure of republi- 
can government. The menace to the cause 
of free government embodied in ^blocks 
of five ' is as real as that lurking in the 
shotgun or the tissue ballot. 

" More than it has yet done is expected 

of the Republican party in the reform of 

civil service. It requires no very close 

study of American politics to reveal the 

75 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

fact that the dispensation of party patron- 
age has done more to corrupt and imbit- 
ter elections, to squander the time of those 
in office, to demoralize those who aspire to 
office, and to wreck the fortunes of indi- 
viduals, of administrations, and of parties, 
than almost any other cause. . . . 

" These are some of the questions on 
which we believe the position of the Re- 
publican party to be more sound and en- 
lightened than that of the Democratic; 
and for this reason we are content to sit 
here to-night as members and guests and 
well-wishers of the Republican club of 
Massachusetts." 

After this speech Roger Wolcott and 
his young followers were an element to be 
reckoned with in the political life of Mas- 
sachusetts. 



76 




CHAPTER V 

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

|HE death of his father in 1891 
left Mr. Wolcott free to take 
up again such public duties or 
office as might be offered him. 
In the spring of 1892 the active members 
of the Republican Club of Massachusetts 
and those who were of a sympathetic mind 
came to the conclusion that it was time 
that the principles for which they stood 
should be more actively felt in the State 
Republican party; they therefore began 
work looking towards the nomination of 
a young man for the office of governor or 
lieutenant-governor. The name suggested 
was that of Roger Wolcott. 
77 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

There were many considerations in his 
favor. He had had experience in the Bos- 
ton common council and the legislature, 
and had shown himself to be conscientious, 
fairminded, courteous, and wise: he was 
a man of high social position and of fine 
and attractive presence ; he had in his Re- 
publican Club speech grasped the situation 
and expressed the feelings of the people. 

On the other hand, there were evident 
limitations. Eight years before, when the 
Republican party was in danger of defeat, 
Mr. Wolcott had forsaken its banner and 
had voted for the first Democratic Presi- 
dent since the war. He was therefore 
obnoxious to some influential politicians, 
and they had good reason to think that he 
would hurt the ticket among the rank and 
file of Republicans. Others felt that, being 
of high social position and a Harvard man, 
living on the Back Bay, he was not one of 
78 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

the people. The people, they thought, 
had no interest in a young man who was 
so nice in his political principles and so 
aristocratic in bearing. 

As the Republican Convention ap- 
proached, all agreed that the nomination 
for governor should be given to William 
H. Haile, then lieutenant-governor. The 
struggle was to be upon the nomination 
for lieutenant-governor. The names of 
four candidates were presented, and on the 
first ballot there was no election. The 
issue was now clear between the two ele- 
ments then existing in the state party, and 
on the second ballot Mr. Wolcott was 
nominated by a vote of 499 to 473, with 
two scattering votes. 

It was a presidential campaign. Mr. 

Harrison had been renominated, and the 

Democrats had brought again to the front 

their leader, Mr. Cleveland. Governor 

79 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

William E. Russell, deservedly popular 
throughout the State, was running for his 
third term. 

For the first time the people of Massa- 
chusetts had an opportunity to see and 
hear Mr. Wolcott As he stood before 
them, they recognized his simplicity and 
sincerity. His presence betokened a 
Massachusetts man of the finest type; he 
was tall and straight; his head was well 
set, his face open and frank; in his jet 
black hair was a touch of silver. Even 
before he opened his mouth, he had gained 
the interest and sympathy of the audience. 
His voice was clear and, as it rose, ringing. 
He wasted no time in telling funny stories; 
in this he showed his respect for the peo- 
ple's intelligence and serious-mindedness. 
If in the first few words he spoke lightly 
or bandied a word with the previous 
speaker or an opponent who had made a 
80 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

speech in town the night before, it was al- 
ways with a purpose, to lead up to his main 
thought; and when he was once off, he 
held to his subject and treated it earnestly 
and seriously. He kindled as he went on, 
broke forth into more rhetorical phrases; 
led the people back to the salient thought; 
appealed to their higher motives, to pa- 
triotism or religion; and sat down. 

No one saw in him a great orator, a 
merely amusing speaker, a narrow party 
advocate, or an over-keen debater. He 
rose to heights of eloquence at times, 
he had a sense of humor, and could be 
quick at repartee; when occasion called 
he sent back to his opponent as good 
as he gave, but always with courtesy and 
a full appreciation of the position of the 
other. He never took unfair advantage 
to misquote, misinterpret, or ascribe ulte- 
rior motives to his opponent. Sometimes 
8i 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

he was so considerate of the other point of 
view as to seem to weaken his own posi- 
tion; but that very temper gained for him 
the confidence of his hearers. If, as was 
the case in this campaign, his votes on some 
questions in the legislature were criti- 
cised, he met the issue frankly, stated his 
position, and relying on his record, let the 
people judge for themselves as to his mo- 
tives and the wisdom of his course. 

He spoke, and the people recognized 
that he spoke simply as a citizen, a patriot, 
to whom high privileges had been given 
and upon whom certain public duties had 
been laid; he was a man among men, 
interested in men, women, and children, 
always glad to meet them and apprecia- 
tive of their loyalty to him. 

The great power of Roger Wolcott with 
the people of Massachusetts was in the 
fact that in all places and under all circum- 
82 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

stances he rang true. There was some- 
thing in the transparency of his character 
and the simplicity of his nature which re- 
vealed this. The farmer and the mill-hand, 
hearing him for the first time, felt it; then 
watching him knew it. He trusted the 
people, and the people trusted him. 

This was the impression that he made in 
his first campaign, as he spoke from town 
to city throughout the Commonwealth. 

In the national election the Democrats 
won, and Mr. Cleveland was elected. In 
the state, Mr. Russell's popularity made 
him again governor, but with that excep- 
tion the Republican ticket, with Mr. Wol- 
cott as lieutenant-governor, was elected. 

Mr. Wolcott now found himself in a 
rather delicate position. As lieutenant- 
governor he was at the head of the State 
Republican party, with, however, a Demo- 
crat as governor. Some partisans would 
83 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

have liked to have him make party capital 
out of the position and appeal to the popu- 
lace by hampering the governor and put- 
ting him when possible into difficult situa- 
tions. On the other hand, Mr. Wolcott, 
suspected by some Republicans of being an 
independent at heart, was by policy and 
principle bound to stand by the party when 
an issue should arise, and to run the risk of 
being called a partisan by his independent 
supporters. Whenever, and it was usually 
the case, he could support the governor's 
policy or nominations, he did so. When- 
ever by rare exceptions he could not, he 
said so frankly, and gave his reasons. 

There was but one issue of importance 
between himself and the governor, and 
that arose at the first meeting of the coun- 
cil. 

The unusual situation of a governor of 
one party and a council of the other raised 
84 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

the question of the right of the governor 
to appoint all committees of the council. 
An amendment to the existing rule was 
offered that all committees be appointed 
by the governor " unless the council shall 
otherwise order." Before the vote was 
taken, the governor read a protest against 
the amendment as infringing upon the 
rights and prerogatives of the governor. 
The lieutenant-governor followed with a 
statement, which he asked to have placed 
upon record, showing that the council was 
defining its inherent right, and was follow- 
ing the precedent of all legislative bodies 
in determining the method of the appoint- 
ment of committees. He lifted the subject 
to a high plane, and although the papers 
of each party tried to make an issue, 
his judicial treatment of the question had 
withdrawn it from partisan discussion. In 
this action at the very beginning of his 
85 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

administration, the people realized that in 
the lieutenant-governor they had a man of 
force and independent habits of thought. 

As the summer of 1893 approached, the 
question arose as to who should lead the 
Republican party at the next election. 
Governor Russell had notified his party 
that he would retire at the end of his term. 
The Republicans now saw their oppor- 
tunity to regain the State. A man must 
be selected as the candidate for governor 
who was well known throughout the Com- 
monwealth, who had had wide experience, 
who would unite all the elements of the 
party, and who by temperament and abil- 
ity could put up a hard and close fight. 
Several candidates were in the field. Mr. 
Wolcott's friends were divided; many of 
them hoped that the tradition of promotion 
would be followed and that he would be 
selected; others felt that he should not 
86 




^T. 46 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

stand; even those near him did not yet 
realize his strength with the people. He 
was, however, still young; the whole State 
did not know him well, and his was not 
the campaign-fighting temperament. 

The Hon. Frederic T. Greenhalge, of 
Lowell, who had served in Congress from 
1889 to 1 89 1 with credit and had shown 
himself a man of independent temper and 
a good fighter, was brought forward as the 
best man for the emergency. Mr. Wol- 
cott's name was not presented to the con- 
vention as a candidate for the nomination 
for governor. After the nomination of 
Mr. Greenhalge, Mr. Wolcott was nomi- 
nated unanimously and by acclamation as 
the candidate for lieutenant-governor. 

His speech to the convention upon the 
acceptance of his nomination expresses 
clearly the issues before the country and 
his attitude toward them. 
87 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

" We pledge again," he said, " our alle- 
giance to those principles from which the 
Republican party has never wavered in its 
support. We believe in an honest and 
stable currency. We believe in and de- 
mand a dollar that shall not be the poorest 
or the cheapest dollar in the world, but 
the best dollar in the world. We believe 
in a tariff policy which, while it protects 
the American laboring man, fosters and 
encourages American industries. We 
believe in a free ballot and an honest 
count everywhere throughout our country. 
We believe in equal privileges under our 
law, and equal protection under the law of 
all our citizens, whatever be their creed, 
their color, or their birth. We believe in 
honest enforcement of the civil service law, 
with sincerity and without hypocrisy. We 
believe that the merit system should be 
still further extended. These are some of 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

the faiths that have made us and held us 
Republicans. Into this campaign we go 
forth determined to win success for every 
name from the highest to the lowest." 

The result of the election was a victory 
for the Republicans : Mr. Greenhalge re- 
ceived a vote of 192,613 and Mr. Wolcott 
of 194,243. 

The two following years of 1894 and 
1895, during which Mr. Wolcott fulfilled 
the duties of his office, were uneventful. 
He cordially supported the governor, was 
conscientious and wise in his work as a 
member of the council, and relieved the 
governor of much arduous labor by repre- 
senting the Commonwealth in his stead at 
many public functions. 

There was one incident which enabled 
Mr. Wolcott to reveal his true American 
spirit. 

There swept at this time over New 
89 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

England one of those tides of suspicion of 
the Roman CathoHc Church which occa- 
sionally rise among Protestant peoples. 
Mr. Wolcott, in approving the appoint- 
ment of a certain Roman Catholic as a 
supervisor of schools, aroused the hostil- 
ity of the organization which represented 
this movement and which claimed to rep- 
resent a large number of voters, — the 
American Protective Association, popu- 
larly called the A. P. A. When, there- 
fore, the time came for his re-election, his 
position upon the religious question was 
demanded; and in a speech at Holyoke 
in October, 1895, he gave no uncertain 
answer when he said: — 

" It seems to me that no greater injury 
can be done to the American people than 
in attempting to bring into our elections 
the bitter feelings of race and religious 
animosity. 

90 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

" And I believe that whoever undertakes 
to do that — and I care not who began it, 
on which side it springs — I believe that 
whoever does that does an injury to the 
Commonwealth which I suppose he pro- 
fesses to love and does love. 

"To draw the line on religious grounds 
I believe to be a crime against the broad 
conception of the United States of America, 
and the broad and generous Republican 
party. I have known, as all of you have, 
too many loyal, faithful friends — those 
who served in the army have had com- 
rades as brave, as devoted to the flag as 
any one, — men born perhaps across the sea, 
under different allegiance, under a differ- 
ent religion, who, when they found them- 
selves here, assimilated into the life of the 
nation, showed themselves to have the 
same quality of citizenship which we boast 
of in our own citizens. . . . 
91 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

" I appeal to the people of Massachusetts 
to hold her true to that principle of equal 
rights and obligations which I believe to 
be embodied in the Constitution of the 
United States of America, and in that 
careful statement in the Constitution of 
Massachusetts, — equal rights to all, no 
matter what their religious opinion may 
be, so long as you recognize in them the 
spirit of loyalty to the nation and the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts." 

There was a decrease of some thou- 
sands in his vote at the next election, 
though whether it was due to this or to 
other conditions is uncertain. Frank as 
he was in meeting this un-American spirit 
on one side, he was equally frank when 
he spoke as follows to the students of 
Holy Cross College, many of whom were 
of foreign parentage: — 
^' You will agree with me, I am sure, when 
92 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

I say that the name of American gains 
nothing by having any other word coupled 
with it by a hyphen; that we all, whose 
destinies, whose lives, whose very selves 
are to-day bound up with the destiny of 
America, that we need not call ourselves 
British-Americans, nor German-Ameri- 
cans, nor Scandinavian-Americans, nor 
Irish-Americans ; that the one name 
'American' alone is enough to rally to 
this flag all loyal and generous spirits." 

The position of lieutenant-governor is 
not an easy one for a man of force and 
confidence in his own abilities. He has 
certain definite duties which are easily 
performed, though his responsibilities as 
chairman of the committee on pardons 
rest heavily upon a man of sensitive con- 
science. In the eye of the public, how- 
ever, he is the man who, second to the gov- 
ernor, represents the Commonwealth at 
93 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

such public functions as the governor can- 
not attend. 

It is hard, under such circumstances, 
for a man to show that he has individual- 
ity or force. When, as was the case with 
Mr. Greenhalge, the governor is a man of 
marked force, decision, energy, and elo- 
quence, the situation is peculiarly difficult. 

Fortunately, Mr. Wolcott had such strong 
personality, such qualities of mind and 
wide interests, as enabled him to make a 
position for himself apart from his office. 
The light official duties gave him time 
and freedom. He was an intelligent stu- 
dent of American history, a man of culture 
and ideas, and a speaker of such reputation 
as always to command an audience. Invi- 
tations, therefore, came to him from all 
parts of the State, and from cities at a dis- 
tance. In accepting them, he found him- 
self driven to a closer study of certain 
94 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

features of the history of Massachusetts 
and her people, he obtained a stronger 
grasp on many subjects, wider experi- 
ence, and more poise in public speaking. 
Through mingling with all kinds of peo- 
ple, he stimulated his social touch, and 
dropped some of the academic manner 
which was natural to him, though he never 
lost that unconscious reserve which com- 
manded the respect of others. There was 
an added ease and freedom of manner, a 
token of self-confidence, which gave force 
to his general bearing. His frame was 
larger and more stately, though no less 
graceful. A broader acquaintance with men 
developed his knowledge of character, and 
served him in many practical ways a 
few years later. He had the ambition of 
every healthy-minded man to make him- 
self felt; he thus took advantage of these 
opportunities to press home his own deep 
95 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

convictions on points of citizenship, pa- 
triotism, and religion. 

When, therefore, he gave the oration at 
the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
of the town of Manchester, there stood 
before the audience a man who was to 
them a representative New Englander, 
whose character revealed some of the ele- 
ments that he was depicting. 

The oration is characteristic in thought 
and style. It traced the story of the 
town in relation to the local and national 
life from its beginning to the present day. 
There breathe such vitality and such sym- 
pathy with the scenes of history and the 
character of Massachusetts, as to justify 
the following ample quotation: — 

"John Winthrop was born in the mem- 
orable year of the Spanish Armada. Even 
before his time the supremacy of the world 
had left the Mediterranean, and was trav- 
96 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

eling westward. Since then, the destiny 
of the English-speaking race has marched 
apace, and though in some far future time 
God may raise up another race to the lead- 
ership of mankind, it seems now probable 
that for centuries the history of the world 
will be what the men of our race shall 
inake it. . . . 

" How little have the physical features 
of your town changed since the days of its 
first settlement! . . . As of old, the cool, 
salt breath of the ocean is wafted inland 
to meet the hot, resinous fragrance of the 
pine forests, which still clothe the rocky 
ridges to which the shore slopes upward. 
The magnolia and dogwood still throw 
out their blossom-laden branches over the 
bayberry and ferns beneath. On the sur- 
face of peaceful pool or sluggish brook 
the pond-lily opens its exquisite chalice, 
and, with the falling dusk of evening, folds 
97 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

again its petals, while the whip-poor-will 
hurriedly reiterates his monotonous plaint 
from the neighboring thicket. 

" Otter and beaver, it is true, have sought 
refuge in Canadian brooks, and bear and 
wolf are no longer a menace to the farm- 
er's flocks. But the little sandpiper tip- 
toes just in advance of the rippling wave, 
and perhaps wonders, as he did two hun- 
dred and fifty years ago, at the weird music 
of the singing beach. In autumn, the wild 
fowl pierce with their wedge-shaped flight 
the regions of the upper air, or circle 
downward to some wood-fringed lake to 
rest on their southward journey. When 
the storms of winter rage, and the sea 
mingles its driven spray with the rack of 
the lowering clouds, the sea-gulls wheel 
and eddy with the gusts of the tempest, 
and their complaining cries, accordant 
with the moaning of the gale, seem fit 
98 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

requiem to the drowned on Norman's 
Woe. In her long struggle with man, 
Nature gives way but slowly, and contests 
every foot of vantage ground she is forced 
to yield. . . . 

" In these towns of old Essex the sea- 
captain has been a familiar and venerated 
figure from the earliest days. In time of 
war, the deck of the privateer knew the 
sturdy tread of the men of Essex, as did 
the fishing-smack and merchantman in 
time of peace. Hardy and vigorous, they 
knew the dangers of the deep, and feared 
them not. Fearless, they faced disaster 
and death ; nor were they appalled even by 
that mysterious tragedy of the sea, the 
total disappearance from the ken of man 
of some vessel which had left port, well- 
manned and tight, with the sunshine bright 
upon its straining canvas, the waves laugh- 
ing in its wake, and the following breeze 
L.ofC.r 99 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

freighted with the prayers of women and 
the god-speed of men. 

" No record, however brief, of these 
coastwise towns of New England can fail 
to lay weighty emphasis upon the control- 
ling influence which the neighboring sea 
exerted upon the lives and characters of 
their inhabitants. They smacked of the 
salt as does the breeze that blows over 
seaweed-covered rocks at low tide. . . . 
Our Manchester settler heard but little 
news from the outer world, and read few 
books. He knew well his Bible, which 
he read with a stern but exalted faith; he 
may have had access to the grim theology 
of Michael Wigglesworth's ' Day of Doom,' 
or the glowing visions of Johnson's ' Won- 
der-working Providence,' and from these 
he may have turned to the more pleasant 
allegory of Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress.' 
Let us hope that the golden light from 

100 



i 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

the Delectable Mountains illumined his 
life of excessive hardship and priva- 
tion. . . . 

" In the long and dubious struggle that 
was now ushered in, amphibious old Essex 
played well her part. On land her blood 
tinged many a battle-field, but it was on 
the sea that her fame was won. The 
splendid seamanship, the cool courage, 
the intelligence, fertile in expedient to 
meet any peril — these were the qualities 
shown by her sons wherever American 
privateer and English war-vessel grappled 
upon the deep. . . . 

" The social and economic problems, 
which now confound us with their com- 
plexity and difficulty, must find their just 
solution at our hands. The savage strife 
which, through their mutual fault, too 
often breaks out between the employer 
and the employed must cease. The rights 

lOI 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

of both must be more clearly defined by 
law, and enforced by the collective sense 
of the community. . . . 

" How best to reduce to their minimum 
the colossal evils of intemperance and of 
other vices demands the wisest legislation, 
carried into effective operation by officers 
of the law whose absolute integrity must be 
assured by whatever safeguards of organ- 
ization and discipline experience and vigi- 
lance can devise. Constant warfare must 
be waged against those influences of 
squalor, ignorance, and vice which breed 
crime, and constant effort exerted to make 
its punishment such as to give opportunity 
for reformation. That poverty which, 
through lack of energy and efficiency, ever 
tends to produce pauperism must be so 
touched by the hand of charity as to be 
stimulated to self-respect and industry. . . . 

" The standard of decency and comfort 
1 02 






LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

in the lives and homes of our toiling people 
must not be lowered. The amazing power 
of assimilation which American civiliza- 
tion has displayed must not be overtaxed. 
When entire families of those alien in 
speech, in habit, and in thought are con- 
tent to kennel within the bare walls of 
reeking tenement or contractor's shanty, 
and to live upon what our own people dis- 
card, wholly untouched by the influences 
which produce the American citizen, they 
constitute a menace to the community. 
The rills of immigration which, properly 
distributed, serve to irrigate and fructify 
our broad territory, must not be permitted 
to become a flood that shall swamp the 
land or sweep it bare of the accumulated 
soil of centuries. . . . 

" We must be exacting, and yet just in 
our judgments of those who hold public 
ofl^ce. Corruption, dishonesty, and cow- 
103 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

ardice should be sternly dealt with ; but 
gross injustice is often wrought by em- 
bittered partisan abuse and the reckless 
imputation of unworthy motives for acts 
of which the error at most may be one of 
judgment only. 

" A living and active faith in the great 
truths of religion is a force for righteous- 
ness in a nation, and this faith is not likely 
to wane in vitality so long as it conforms 
itself more and more closely to the teach- 
ings and life of Christ. 

" Public education must be ever broad- 
ened in its aims and improved in its meth- 
ods and results. Forever free from sec- 
tarianism, our schools must make luminous 
to the eye of the young the page of Amer- 
ican history, so that even the child of the 
most recent immigrant may early learn 
that he has become a citizen of no mean 
country. . . . 

104 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

" In this high service let there be a gen- 
erous emulation among the sister States. 
Shall our own dear State give backward 
step from the forefront where she has ever 
proudly stood in all the long years since 
your own town had its birth? O stern 
and mighty cliffs that guard the shores of 
Massachusetts Bay, and hurl back un- 
shaken the surges of the Atlantic! O 
waving forests that clothe the hills and 
clasp in their embrace the embosomed 
lakes! O broad and fair domain of the 
old Bay State, stretching from beautiful 
Berkshire past peaceful village and pros- 
perous city to the glistening sands of 
Barnstable, and on to historic Nantucket, 
nursed on ocean's breast ! — thy breed of 
men has never failed thee yet. May they 
continue to spring from thy loins as we 
have known them in the past, sturdy, vir- 
tuous, and heroic. So for all time may 
105 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

the prayer go up, not in cringing terror 
nor pusillanimous supplication, but in the 
full, strong voice of manly self-reliance, 
' God save the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts.' " 

Whether in some distant city on Fore- 
fathers' Day, or at the dinner of a press 
club, or a newsboys' association, at a school 
graduation, or a cattle show, or a board of 
trade, he always had some appropriate 
thought in mind, or some practical truth 
to press home. For instance, to the Good 
Citizens' Club he said : — 

" Public spirit is almost the first of civic 
virtues. Apathy and indifference to the 
common weal are almost crimes. Here 
in America no citizen can wash his hands 
of his country. He must either make it 
better, or he will probably make it worse. 
In religion, in education, and in charity — 
in one or all of these beneficent agencies 
1 06 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

— he can do much to extend their scope 
and to strengthen their influence. 

" In politics his duty is plain and urgent. 
The man who habitually neglects to vote 
is a shirk and a renegade. Here it is un- 
happily not true that we have reached our 
best either in men or in methods. I care 
little what a man's opinions may be, if he 
has formed them intelligently and ad- 
vances them honorably. Rancorous and 
unfair vituperation of political opponents, 
I believe, always wins sympathy and, con- 
sequently, votes for the individual or party 
so attacked. If in all political contentions 
we remember that we are first Americans 
and only secondarily Republicans or Dem- 
ocrats, we shall not be in danger of sinking 
patriotism in partisanship." 

At Lexington he appealed to local sen- 
timent: — 

"The lesson cannot be repeated too 
107 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

often that it is not the mere congregation 
of population, it is not abundant pros- 
perity, that makes a nation, a city, or a 
town truly great. There are spots here 
and there throughout the world where the 
mind is inspired, where the heart is made 
to beat with a quicker pulse before the eye 
is inspired with a vision of a noble popu- 
lation or new wealth. I think a lesson 
that we of this present generation must 
strive to repeat is this lesson of patriotism 
— of the loyalty, heroism, hardships en- 
dured, and the results achieved by the 
men who perpetuated the foundations of 
this nation." 

At the Lincoln Republican Club he 
treated of the relations of the State to cor- 
porations : — 

" I think that the legislation of the Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts, so far as 
regards the control of these corporations, 
1 08 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

will be found to be progressively in one 
direction; that is, that without imposing 
on them such shackles as shall discourage 
the investment of capital for an honest and 
reasonable return, and drive that capital 
to seek investment beyond our Common- 
wealth, the legislation of Massachusetts is 
progressively in the direction of exacting 
from these corporations a full and abun- 
dant equivalent for the great rights and 
privileges that are accorded them." 

At a Republican club dinner he said : — 

" The only permanent safeguard for the 
honesty of our legislators is the character 
of the men whom the several constituen- 
cies select. To that let us all, of whatever 
party, pledge ourselves." 

In speaking at the New England Society 
in Philadelphia on Forefathers' Day, 1897, 
he said : — 

" It is a poor and careless optimism 
109 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

which would close its eye to evils in our 
body politic and in society, which those 
sturdy men of the earlier time would 
have cut out, though the surgery might be 
grim and pitiless. It is a weak and impo- 
tent cynicism, which had no place in their 
conception of public duty, that seeing those 
evils would succumb to their dominance 
in indifference or despair. As in the past, 
so in the future, may the Republic never 
lack in her sons something of the indom- 
itable spirit of the Puritan, his fidelity to 
conscience and to duty, his faith in God 
and in man, his stern righteousness and 
downright honesty — for of such qualities 
are made up brave manhood and loyal 
citizenship." 

In the midsummer there was pitched 
a great tent on Boston Common for the 
convention of the Christian Endeavor So- 
ciety. Some ten thousand people gathered 
no 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

within and outside its curtains to hear the 
opening address of the lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of the Commonwealth. The air was 
electric with religious and patriotic emo- 
tion. The strangers were captured first by 
the bearing of Mr. Wolcott as he stood 
to speak; then as he kindled in response, 
and spoke with fervor, directness, and 
power, the whole audience arose and 
cheered to the echo. 

" Christian Endeavor ! I know of no 
two words in the English language that 
are more freighted with deep significance. 
The spirit of the religion of Jesus Christ, 
the spirit which finds its truest expression 
in the mandate, 'Do unto others as ye 
would that they should do unto you,' that 
divine spirit, inspired and put into active 
operation by the noble endeavor and ear- 
nest effort of men : I know of no title that 
you could have chosen that could be more 
III 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

heavily weighted with blessing and divine 
inspiration than those two words." 

The speech made a profound impression 
on the multitude; the secret of the power 
was not so much, however, in the speech 
as in the revelation of the man, a high 
official, and, at the same time, so simple, 
so direct, so transfigured with the spirit of 
Christian service. 

Now and again we catch the refrain that 
was his constant inspiration, the memory 
of his brother Huntington. 

Memorial Day was to him full of sacred 
associations. As he spoke at the Wolcott 
Post on that day, in 1895, he said: — 

" Historians have drawn attention to 
the surprising youth of most of those 
brave and far-seeing men who were the 
signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. Youth saw more clearly and dared 
more than age. In like manner, as we 
112 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

read the story of the heroes of '6i, we are 
amazed to note how many of them had 
lived long lives of achievement, of suffer- 
ing, and of responsibility before they were 
twenty-five. In that fierce fire of experi- 
ence the dross was burned away: boys 
became men, and men became heroes. . . . 
Such was he whose name your Post bears. 
It was no mere love of adventure, no 
boyish impulse which claimed his young 
life. It was rather that deliberate, firm 
resolve which, from century to century, 
has taken possession of men of the Anglo- 
Saxon race, and has led them to say, ' This 
thing is worth fighting for, and by God's 
blessing we will win it; ' and when they 
have said this, whether at Runnymede, or 
Marston Moor, or Bunker Hill, or Gettys- 
burg, they are irresistible. He had counted 
the cost and was ready to pay it. And so 
he died at a little over nineteen years, 
113 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

high-minded, pure, and fearless, a willing 
sacrifice to country and humanity." 

On the 5th of March, 1896, Governor 
Greenhalge died, and, on the next day, 
the lieutenant-governor, having formally 
announced his death to the legislature, 
assumed the duties of governor. It is an 
interesting coincidence that, just a century 
before, in the year 1796, Oliver Wolcott, 
then lieutenant-governor of Connecticut, 
announced to President Washington that, 
in consequence of the death of Governor 
Samuel Huntington, he had entered upon 
the duties of the office of governor. 

Mr. Wolcott's association with Gov- 
ernor Greenhalge had been so close and 
harmonious that it was easy for him to 
take up the details of administration. One 
bill before the legislature, giving the Mas- 
sachusetts Pipe Line Company power to 
make and distribute gas, had attracted 
114 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

much public notice. Attention was called 
by a part of the press to the fact that ex- 
traordinary and unsafe powers were to be 
granted by the State. Nevertheless, the 
bill passed the legislature. It promised 
cheaper gas, and was supported by strong 
influence. In returning it with his veto, 
the acting governor pointed out the re- 
markable privileges granted, the injustice 
of the provisions of the bill towards towns, 
cities, and citizens, and the lack of power 
on the part of the State to enforce the 
promises of the promoters. He said: — 

" Experience has demonstrated that un- 
restricted competition by public-service 
corporations, although the temporary re- 
sults may make cheaper prices to the pub- 
lic, seldom accomplishes any permanent 
good. The public must eventually pay 
the bills. 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

" I can see no permanent advantage to 
the community in arming this company 
with a club, by which it may strike down 
those already in the field. Temporarily 
it may cheapen prices; indeed, it must do 
so, or promise to do so, that it may strike 
them down; but the history of such com- 
petition demonstrates that it is the public 
that suffers. . . . 

" In my opinion, it is not justice to 
vested rights, nor sound business policy, 
nor for the interests of the public, to au- 
thorize the discriminations which this bill 
proposes to establish, especially without 
assurance by actual demonstration or suf- 
ficient guarantee that the public bene- 
fit which could alone justify them must 
ensue." 

He suggested certain changes which 
would make the bill safe and just. His 
veto was sustained, his suggestions were 
ii6 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR 

adopted, and the bill was passed and 
signed. 

The people again recognized in Mr. 
Wolcott a wise and just official, alert to 
protect their rights. 



117 




CHAPTER VI 

GOVERNOR 

[N the summer of 1896, the 
presidential election was ap- 
proaching. There was a great 
contrast between the situation 
then and in 1892, when Mr. Wolcott was 
elected lieutenant-governor to Governor 
Russell. 

During his second term, Mr. Cleveland 
had been unable to hold his party to- 
gether; the hard times had developed the 
forces of silver and populism. On the 
other hand, better financial prospects had 
given courage to the advocates of gold. 
The Republican party went into the 
n8 



GOVERNOR 

campaign pledged to gold, with Mr. Mc- 
Kinley, of the Middle West, whose name 
was associated with high tariff, as the 
presidential candidate. The Democrats 
by their action made the issue clear. They 
selected Mr. Bryan, the champion of sil- 
ver, as their standard-bearer, and in addi- 
tion to the silver plank put into their 
platform resolutions upon the Supreme 
Court and the constitutional power of the 
executive that shocked the country and 
caused a recoil against populism. It was 
one of the critical elections in the national 
history. The campaign was fortunately 
marked by very little vituperation, and by 
much reasonable and intelligent discus- 
sion. In Massachusetts, the Republicans 
were sure to win: the question was by 
how great a majority. 

Mr. Wolcott, who had filled the office 
of lieutenant-governor so acceptably, was 
119 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

unanimously nominated for governor, and 
took an active part in the campaign. 

" I believe," he said, at a ratification 
meeting, " that in this great struggle which 
confronts us now, there will be thousands 
of honor-Democrats who will refuse to im- 
peril the financial honor of the United 
States, to follow the motley crowd that 
has led the way into the Cave of Adul- 
1am." 

The title " honor - Democrats " went 
through the press of the country. 

Upon his acceptance of the nomination 
at the state convention, he appealed to 
all citizens of Massachusetts by the honor- 
able record of the State. 

" I should like, gentlemen," he said, " to 
take only a moment of your time to re- 
hearse to you a little of the history of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I wish 
the Republicans and the Democrats alike 

I20 



GOVERNOR 

of Massachusetts to know what has been 
the position of this Commonwealth as re- 
gards meeting every obligation with the 
highest and most complete honor. During 
the years between the suspension of specie 
payments and the resumption of specie 
payments, in the years between 1862 and 
1879, all the debt of the Commonwealth 
contracted previous to, and paid during 
that period, was made payable in dollars 
simply, and by the Legal Tender Act might 
have been paid legally and without ques- 
tion in greenbacks. The Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts declined to avail herself 
of this advantage. The debt of Massa- 
chusetts was paid in gold. It amounted 
to $5,924,000. And adding the war loan 
of $3,505,000, which was made payable 
in lawful money of the United States, we 
have a total of $9,429,000 voluntarily paid 
in gold, when it might legally have been 
121 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

paid in greenbacks. Not only that, gen- 
tlemen, but of the foregoing debt, nearly 
one million dollars was issued by the 
Commonwealth in aid of domestic cor- 
porations, they agreeing to pay interest as 
it became due, and the principal at its 
maturity; but they, availing themselves of 
their technical agreement, in which they 
were sustained by the courts of Massa- 
chusetts, paid to the Commonwealth cur- 
rency only, while the Commonwealth in 
all her obligations paid principal and in- 
terest in gold. How much did it cost the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts to pre- 
serve her honor? The premium alone 
paid in the purchase of gold to meet these 
obligations amounted to $35703,556. 

" So much did our fathers pay to pre- 
serve the honor of the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts; and I venture to say that 
no expenditure ever made by this Com- 
122 



GOVERNOR 

monwealth was more wise and more far- 
seeing than that expenditure that I have 
referred to." 

The success of the Republicans was be- 
yond all expectations. In Massachusetts, 
Mr. Wolcott, leading the ticket, swept 
every city and town (except one) in the 
State. He was elected by a much greater 
majority than that ever before given to a 
governor of Massachusetts. His vote was 
258,204. The vote for all other candi- 
dates was 126,860. His native city of 
Boston, which had gone Democratic for 
years, gave him a great majority. This 
result was not only a victory for party 
and principle, but was also "a personal trib- 
ute and an expression of confidence in 
his past administration. 

During the next three years, Mr. Wol- 
cott gave himself with characteristic devo- 
tion and conscientiousness to the duties of 
123 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

his high office. Apart from the war with 
Spain, there were no exceptional incidents, 
no radical reforms or marked movements : 
none were called for. There were, how- 
ever, improvements made at several points, 
especially in the care of the insane, and 
the administration of the public institu- 
tions. 

With the development of the Common- 
wealth, the tendency to centralization, and 
the increasing power and responsibility 
of the executive, the office of governor 
becomes more and more important, labori- 
ous, and intricate. Many interests come 
to the State House, such as insurance, 
water, sewerage, police, railroads, trolley 
lines, municipal government, and parks, 
which were almost unknown there a gen- 
eration ago. The business interests are 
large. 

In fact, the real work of the governor 
124 



GOVERNOR 

is chiefly that of which the people hear 
nothing, — the routine of administration, 
the conferences in the executive cham- 
ber, the careful selection of state officers, 
and the adjustment of the different de- 
partments whereby friction is avoided 
and the whole administration made to run 
smoothly. 

There are, however, certain acts or in- 
cidents, sometimes unimportant in them- 
selves, of a personal kind which catch the 
public eye, and are really important on 
account of the weight that is given them 
by the people. 

We will glance over the record of the 
three years, first as it caught the people's 
attention. 

The day of Governor Wolcott's inaugu- 
ration was brilliant without and within the 
State House. There was that about him 
which always interested the people in his 
125 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

official acts. By his dignity and grace he 
gave distinction to a function of which he 
was the centre. The hall of the House, in 
which the whole general court, the justices 
and other officers of the Commonwealth 
were gathered, was unusually crowded: 
the galleries were bright with the company 
of ladies. His mother, wife, and five chil- 
dren, his college classmates and friends 
were there. It was a day of reasonable 
joy and pride to the governor. His studies 
of Massachusetts history had given him a 
high conception of the office; his ances- 
tors had graced the same position in Con- 
necticut. The name of Roger Wolcott 
was already historic in the annals of New 
England. No other motive had brought 
him there than a desire to serve the 
people; he had come by no other path 
than that through which his own con- 
science and high ideals had led him. He 
126 



GOVERNOR 

had served the State as a private citizen 
and in various offices; now the people who 
knew him had placed him there by the 
greatest vote ever given to a governor of 
Massachusetts. His satisfaction was none 
other than that which comes to any honor- 
able public officer, but there was in the 
minds of all present something peculiarly 
happy, fortunate, and brilliant in the life 
of Roger Wolcott. 

His first inaugural message, as were his 
later ones, was businesslike, direct, and 
clear. As a Democratic paper said the 
next day, there was "not a whisper of 
party politics." 

He called attention to the increase of 
the state debt, and even though more 
prosperous times were at hand, asked for 
care in expenditure; he noted and ap- 
proved the tendency towards consolida- 
tion of interests in the metropolitan dis- 
127 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

trict of Boston; he urged restriction in the 
number of liquor saloons. 

He pressed the point that street railways 
should pay for their franchises, but that in 
return the rights of the corporation should 
be made secure. He closed with the 
warning, "The volume of legislation is a 
poor criterion of its necessity or wisdom." 

The reference to the limitation of 
licensed saloons suggests a subject which 
caused him much thought. The police 
commissioners of the city of Boston, who 
are responsible for the licensing of saloons, 
are appointed by the governor. It was a 
general characteristic of Mr. Wolcott that, 
when he had once approved a commission 
or appointed men to official positions, he 
would leave them free and thus hold them 
responsible for the efficient conduct of 
their office. It required much time and 
evidence to convince him that the condi- 
128 



GOVERNOR 

tions were such that he should interfere; 
but when he was convinced he never 
shirked the responsibility, but himself took 
hold and made his position clear. 

In the granting of licenses there is al- 
ways room for high-minded and efficient 
officers to disagree as to the wisdom of this 
or that action or as to the interpretation of 
the law. Governor Wolcott was convinced 
not only that the people of Boston wanted 
a strict enforcement of the laws, but also 
that in certain districts they wished no 
saloons. He did not think that because of 
this, saloons should be multiplied in other 
districts, especially among the poor. He 
had occasion, therefore, publicly to call the 
attention of the commission to these points 
several times in strong terms. 

In the winter of 1897 rumors appeared 
in the papers against the official integrity 
of the chairman of the board ; even formal 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

chareres were made that he had had such 
business relations with liquor dealers as to 
compromise his official influence if not his 
honesty. 

The chairman had been a gallant gen- 
eral in the war, a mayor of Boston, and 
had shown himself active and efficient in 
the enforcement of the laws. The charges 
were such and the evidence so strong as 
to warrant the governor in asking imme- 
diately for his resignation on the ground 
that his official usefulness was gone. Many 
wise friends of the governor felt that he 
ought to take sharp action, and many citi- 
zens thought it weak and injurious to 
public morals for him to delay. 

In his action here Mr. Wolcott showed 
the judicial temper so characteristic of 
him. Although he could think quickly on 
his feet, he was slow in his decision of 
knotty questions. He gave each point 
130 



GOVERNOR 

careful consideration. Such an attitude 
suggested to some minds weakness and 
indecision. At times he seemed to be 
over-conscientious, too ready to look on 
all sides, and too judicial for strong lead- 
ership. Mr. Wolcott appreciated the high 
character that the chairman had hitherto 
borne, he knew that a great many people 
still trusted him, that he was also a pro- 
minent Democrat; above all he felt that 
the chairman, even though his official influ- 
ence was gone, had a right to be heard 
and to meet his accusers. The result was 
a long and painful hearing. The gov- 
ernor, having looked upon all sides, made 
his own decision, wrote it with great care 
and exactness with his own hand, and on 
the evidence given by the chairman him- 
self, recommended his removal. The pop- 
ular sympathy for the chairman was so 
strong that Mr. Wolcott in preparing his 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

verdict believed that it would meet with 
general disapproval. As he handed the 
paper to his wife when he had written the 
last word, he said, " Do you want to see 
my political death-warrant ? " 

The council refused to concur. The 
chairman remained in office to the end of 
his term. The governor had, however, 
by his action escaped the charge of injus- 
tice, and had shown himself wise and 
appreciative of the dignity of public office, 
and the sober second thought of the peo- 
ple, enforced by the cogency of Mr. Wol- 
cott's reasoning, affirmed the justice of his 
cause. 

The refusal of the council to concur 
prompted some members of the legislature 
to present a bill giving the governor abso- 
lute power of removal of police commis- 
sioners. Mr. Wolcott, however, said pub- 
licly: — 

132 



GOVERNOR 

" I have in many speeches expressed 
my high appreciation of the usefulness of 
the executive council, and my belief that 
it should be retained as an important and 
valuable portion of our constitutional gov- 
ernment. 

" I believe fully in the requirement that 
nominations made by the governor shall 
receive the consent of the council. 

" I have many times said in public that 
in the matter of removals there is in my 
mind more doubt. The tendency in the 
more recent municipal charters is to give 
the sole power of removal to the mayor, 
and I think the governors of Massachu- 
setts can be as safely intrusted with this 
power as the mayors of her cities. 

" There are both advantages and disad- 
vantages likely to follow such absolute 
power of removal, and, in my opinion, 
these should be deliberately and carefully 
133 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

weighed by the legislature at some other 
time than the closing weeks of the legisla- 
tive session, and when their action may 
embody principles and not be due to the 
exigency of an individual case." 

He illustrated his sensitiveness to offi- 
cial dignity again in publicly rebuking a 
state commission for allowing their em- 
ployees to lobby against a bill which would 
withdraw some powers from the commis- 
sion. The talk of the papers about " irre- 
sponsible commissions " ceased during the 
official term of Governor Wolcott. 

After the death of Governor Green- 
halge, Mr. Wolcott was enabled for a time 
to escape many of the public functions and 
social events which draw upon an official's 
strength. As time passed, these engage- 
ments increased. The routine of his office 
occupied the day, the evenings were often 
spent in public engagements, or, as the 
134 



GOVERNOR 

close of the legislative session drew near, 
at work upon official business. 

A few historic incidents, however, re- 
lieved the monotony and again enabled 
the people to recognize the brilliant per- 
sonality of the governor. 

At the dedication of Grant's tomb in 
New York in April, 1897, the great pro- 
cession included the civil and military 
representatives of the States. It was a 
bitter day, and the wind swept down the 
Hudson. Those who saw Governor Wol- 
cott will never forget the sight. Well 
mounted, dressed with the severe simpli- 
city of the governor of Massachusetts, — a 
black frock coat and tall hat, — with no gilt 
or gay caparison to call attention to him 
or to detract from his radiant beauty, he 
sat in the saddle for hours in that bitter 
wind, waiting the command to move. 
Then, as he and his staff swept up the 
135 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

avenue and broke from the rolling cloud 
of dust into the sight of the people, the 
flash of his white hair, the flush of his 
face, and the brilliancy of the whole man 
moved the multitude, and there burst forth 
such a shout as would in other ages have 
welcomed home a Crusader. For to the 
people, even those who knew not his name 
or office, he seemed to represent the 
beauty and glory of the knighthood of 
America. 

On the 26th of May an interesting his- 
toric scene was enacted at the State 
House. The officials of the Common- 
wealth, with the senate and house, met 
in the hall of representatives. At the 
hands of Mr. Bayard, late ambassador to 
England, the governor received the origi- 
nal manuscript of " The Log of the May- 
flower," which, at the time of the Revo- 
lution, had mysteriously disappeared from 
136 



GOVERNOR 

the Old South Meeting House, — a manu- 
script which, fifty years later, had been 
discovered in the library of Fulham Palace, 
London, and which, by the courtesy of the 
Bishop of London, was hereafter to rest 
in the capitol of the Old Bay State. Gov- 
ernor Wolcott said : — 

" There are places and objects so inti- 
mately associated with the world's great- 
est men, or with mighty deeds, that the 
soul of him who gazes upon them is lost 
in a sense of reverent awe, as it listens to 
the voice that speaks from the past in 
words like those which came from the 
burning bush : ' Put off thy shoes from off 
thy feet, for the place whereon thou stand- 
est is holy ground.' 

" On the sloping hillside of Plymouth, 

that bathes its feet in the waters of the 

Atlantic, such a voice is breathed by the 

brooding genius of the place, and the ear 

137 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

must be dull that fails to catch the whis- 
pered words. For here not alone did 
godly men and women suffer greatly for a 
great cause, but their noble purpose was 
not doomed to defeat, but was carried to 
perfect victory. They established what 
they planned. Their feeble plantation be- 
came the birthplace of religious libert}^, 
the cradle of a free Commonwealth. To 
them a mighty nation owns its debt. Nay, 
they have made the civilized world their 
debtor. In the varied tapestry which pic- 
tures our national life, the richest spots 
are those where gleam the golden threads 
of conscience, courage, and faith, set in the 
web by that little band. May God in his 
mercy grant that the moral impulse which 
founded this nation may never cease to 
control its destiny; that no act of any 
future generation may put in peril the 
fundamental principles on which it is 
138 



GOVERNOR 

based, — of equal rights in a free state, 
equal privileges in a free church, and equal 
opportunities in a free school. 

" In this precious volume which I hold 
in my hands — the gift of England to the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts — is told 
the noble, simple story ' of Plimoth Plan- 
tation.' In the midst of suffering and pri- 
vation and anxiety, the pious hand of 
William Bradford here set down in ample 
detail the history of the enterprise from 
its inception to the year 1647. From him 
we may learn that ' all great and honour- 
able actions are accompanied with great 
difficulties, and must be both enterprised 
and overcome with answerable cour- 
ages.' " 

Five days later was unveiled the mon- 
ument to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. 
Standing as it does, a noble work of art, 
opposite the State House, from the steps 
139 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

of which Governor Andrew reviewed the 
colored regiment as it passed, and repre- 
senting a crisis in the history of civiliza- 
tion, its unveiling was worthy of honor. 
In the procession were the officials of the 
State, the militia, the veterans of the Civil 
War, past members of Shaw's regiment, 
led by his lieutenant-colonel, and includ- 
ing the color-sergeant who carried the 
flag at Fort Wagner. In the Music Hall 
the governor represented the Common- 
wealth, and as presiding officer said: — 

" We are here to commemorate not only 
a gallant, noble death, not alone the gallant 
deaths of those who fell side by side with 
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, but an epoch 
in the history of a race. On the blood- 
stained earthworks at Fort Wagner, a 
race was called into manhood." 

The centennial celebration of the erec- 
tion of the State House had peculiar inter- 
140 



GOVERNOR 

est, for at that time was rededicated the 
Bulfinch front. 

The commission having in charge the 
extension of the State House had recom- 
mended that the whole building, the dome 
and facade, be demolished, and that a fire- 
proof building be erected conforming with 
the architecture of the extension. This 
aroused the sentiment of a great many 
citizens. Active work for the preserva- 
tion of the Bulfinch front was undertaken. 
The legislature was convinced that it 
could be made fireproof, and a bill was 
passed to carry out the plan. The work 
was completed, and one hundred years 
from the time of its erection, the Bulfinch 
front assumed within and without its ori- 
ginal form. The officers of the State met 
with the legislature, and the governor ad- 
dressed them as follows: — 

" We are met in joint assemblage of 
141 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

the two branches of the General Court, 
and in the presence of the governor and 
council, to rededicate to the public use 
of the Commonwealth the stately and 
beautiful edifice which was, one hundred 
years ago, in the eloquent words of Gov- 
ernor Sumner, dedicated to the honor, 
freedom, independence, and security of 
our country. Since then it has been the 
State House of the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts. 

" Its walls have resounded to the tread, 
and have echoed the words of statesmen, 
soldiers, jurists, and men of affairs, who 
have had their share in the fame of the 
Commonwealth. Here have been enacted 
the laws which have made Massachusetts 
an example and a leader to the other States 
of the Union. Whatsoever pride its peo- 
ple may feel in their citizenship, in large 
measure finds its source within these 
142 



GOVERNOR 

halls. For a century this building has 
symbolized the dignity and majesty of the 
Commonwealth. 

" Its cornerstone was laid by Samuel 
Adams, the great popular leader of the 
Revolutionary period, and by Paul Revere, 
skillful mechanic and immortal patriot. 
Its design was the work of Charles Bul- 
finch, the foremost architect of his time 
in America, and it stands to-day his most 
worthy monument. 

^'Either as an owner of the site, or as 
official occupants of the structure, every 
one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence from the colony of Massa- 
chusetts Bay held close relation with this 
building. Here presidents of the United 
States, from James Monroe to Ulysses S. 
Grant, have been received and entertained 
with the honor due their exalted office, 
and the character and achievement which 
143 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

they brought to the performance of its ar- 
duous duties. Here Webster has spoken, 
and Everett and Choate and Sumner, and 
many another with lesser fame who yet 
has deserved well of the Republic. Here, 
in honored death, lay a vice-president of 
the United States, and a senator of the 
Commonwealth who had dared and suf- 
fered in her cause. Here have acted and 
labored the long line of my predecessors 
in office, who have made the title of gov- 
ernor of the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts one of the most honored in the 
nation. Here John A. Andrew gave his 
heart's blood to the cause of union and 
nationality. From yonder steps have 
marched to death or victory the gallant 
youth of the State, ready to give their 
lives to a great cause. Here, year by 
year, have successive legislatures patiently 
wrought to embody in the statutes of the 
144 



GOVERNOR 

Commonwealth the fundamental principles 
laid down in the Constitution. 

" These halls are eloquent with the pre- 
sence of the great dead. They speak to 
us with the compelling voice of the past, 
and bid us be not unworthy of the trust 
it has imposed. May we meet the pro- 
blems of the present with the spirit which 
inspired our fathers, and may we dedicate 
ourselves anew to the maintenance of a 
government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people; so may God bless 
us of this generation as he has hitherto 
blessed the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
setts." 

At the Commencement of Williams Col- 
lege, in 1897, he received the degree of 
Doctor of Laws. 

As the year closed there was evident 
satisfaction throughout the State with the 
administration. The Boston " Post " ex- 
145 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

pressed the feeling: "Governor Wolcott 
has made a good governor. He has made 
a pretty good governor according to the 
Democratic standards. He has shown 
great abiHty and fearlessness in standing 
by the interests of the people of the State." 

At the election of 1897 Mr. Wolcott, 
who had been renominated, received the 
largest majority ever given a governor of 
Massachusetts, except his own the year 
before, and he again carried the city of 
Boston. 

The war with Spain so engrossed the 
attention of the people as well as the gov- 
ernor that little else than routine work in 
legislation was done. 

The following year he again received a 
heavy plurality, and again carried Boston. 
As it is a tradition that a governor of 
Massachusetts should serve only three 
years, Mr. Wolcott's love for Massachu- 
146 



GOVERNOR 

setts prompted him to break through the 
businesslike character of his inaugural and 
close with these words: — 

" Gentlemen of the senate and house of 
representatives: ... In all their deliber- 
ations, and in all their official acts, the 
executive and the legislature alike will do 
well to remember that they are adding to 
the history of a State which, for more 
than two and three-quarters centuries, has 
written her name large and fair on the 
record which tells of lofty aspiration and 
honorable citizenship. During this length- 
ening period the Commonwealth has main- 
tained a pure and learned judiciary, which 
has administered justice without discrimi- 
nation between the rich and the poor, the 
powerful and the humble; as she was the 
first to acknowledge the duty of the State 
freely to educate all her children, so she 
has ever with wise liberality promoted the 
147 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

general diffusion of knowledge ; to all she 
has extended freedom of religious belief 
and the equal protection of her laws in 
the public worship of God; in war her 
sons have never failed to show resolute 
purpose and unflinching courage ; in peace 
her statesmen have possessed the clear 
vision which reads the coming future, and 
her citizens, through industry and enter- 
prise, have attained a degree of general 
prosperity scarcely equaled among the 
peoples of the earth; her homes have been 
virtuous, her people contented; her poets 
and historians have made honorable the 
fame of American letters; her inventions 
and discoveries have aided to revolution- 
ize industry, and to make comfortable the 
lives of those who toil; from generation 
to generation she has kept aflame a beacon 
light of intelligence and high purpose, 
which has carried into many dark places 
148 



GOVERNOR 

the illumination of humanity and civiliza- 
tion. 

" Such is the Commonwealth whose 
public and trusted servants we are. Such 
is the lustre of her fame, which is in our 
power to tarnish or to transmit with its 
full radiance undimmed. In serving the 
common weal we serve the Common- 
wealth. May our service be worthy of 
her great past and of her greater future." 

The three acts most worthy of record 
in the routine of the executive were all 
done in protection of the people's rights. 

In the original Subway Act, it was re- 
quired that the West End Railroad should 
take up the surface tracks on Tremont 
Street. This the road had done. A bill 
was before the legislature empowering the 
road to re-la}^ the tracks. The pressure 
was very strong upon the governor to 
sign the bill, if it should pass. He had 
149 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

made up his mind that, if the bill passed 
without clauses for a referendum and for 
compensation for use of streets, he would 
veto it. It would have been natural and 
more in harmony with the traditions of the 
office for the governor to veto the bill 
after its passage. Feeling, however, that 
valuable time would be wasted and that 
it would be better for all interested to 
know his mind, he told the supporters of 
the bill the conditions on which alone it 
would have his signature. The clauses 
were inserted, the bill signed, and in the 
referendum vote the movement to re-lay 
the tracks was heavily defeated. 

On several other occasions he antici- 
pated legislation in a similar way, and 
aroused thereby some criticism. It was 
thought to be an interference with freedom 
of legislation. His action was entirely 
informal. In view of the increase in the 



GOVERNOR 

volume of business before the legislature, 
the value of time, and the inadvisability 
of allowing long discussion on measures 
which, with some change, might avoid a 
veto, he felt it to be one of the reasonable 
movements in administration that must 
come. Since his day, experience in na- 
tional and state legislation has shown that 
his surmise was correct. Expedition of 
business requires closer understanding be- 
tween the executive and the legislative 
bodies. The fear of a veto is sometimes 
as effective as a veto, and often more 
useful. 

A bill passed the legislature, supported 
by representatives of the trades-unions, ex- 
empting the unions from making returns 
to the insurance commissioner. When the 
bill came to the governor it was clear that 
the labor organizations would make it 
an issue as to his sympathy with them. 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

The governor in his veto message lifted 
the subject above partisan considerations 
when he wrote : — 

" It has long been the policy of this 
Commonwealth carefully to guard the 
business of insurance which it permits to 
be conducted within its limits. The va- 
rious statutes relating to the method of 
conducting this important business are not 
intended unnecessarily to hamper or con- 
trol it, but solely to protect the rights of 
the insured, who, as experience has shown, 
without such protection would often be 
subjected to serious loss. I see no good 
reason why wage-workers should be de- 
prived of the benefits or denied the pro- 
tection of these salutary laws. If the bill 
now under consideration should become a 
law, it would remove all statutory restric- 
tions whatsoever from the class of associa- 
tions described therein, and consequently 
152 



GOVERNOR 

deprive the members of such associations 
of every safeguard which the wisdom of 
the legislature has imposed on all other 
persons conducting a similar business." 

The third instance was his veto of a bill 
giving the veterans of the Spanish War 
preference over civilians in the public 
service : — 

" And yet the veterans of the Civil War," 
he said, " neither asked nor received stat- 
utory preference over civilians in the pub- 
lic employ until the lapse of nineteen years 
from the close of the strife, and the pre- 
ference then accorded was only to be given 
' other qualities being equal.' Eleven years 
later these words were stricken out, and 
the absolute preference was first enacted. 
... I have yet to learn that any consider- 
able number of the soldiers of this war 
have expected or asked for more. I should 
feel that I were doing them dishonor if I 
153 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

believed that the expectation of such pre- 
ferment to public office as is provided in 
this bill entered into the motives which 
prompted their enlistment, or that the de- 
sire for it was general so soon after the 
close of their honorable service." 

The varied interests of the State of 
Massachusetts demand of the governor the 
abilities and habits of a business man. 
Mr. Wolcott inherited business habits and 
had a good general knowledge of com- 
mercial interests. He was conscientious 
and intelligent in the details of his office. 
He knew the worth of proper accounting 
and a clear financial statement. He was 
prompt and exact himself. He met his 
engagements, often at the risk of his health 
or at much sacrifice of his own conven- 
ience. In coming to a decision upon mat- 
ters of state, and in seeking the advice of 
others, he never revealed by his questions 
154 



GOVERNOR 

or conversation in what direction his 
judgment was moving; and, until his de- 
cision was announced, his closest friends 
knew not what it would be. 

An essential talent in an administra- 
tor is that of judging correctly of men's 
abilities and characters, and their fitness 
for certain positions, and in public ser- 
vice of getting the best men to accept 
office. 

In selecting men for office Mr. Wolcott 
was very careful in his inquiries. He 
distrusted letters about men; so much so, 
indeed, that in his correspondence there 
is hardly a letter upon that subject. 
He trusted to individual research through 
friends, to incidental conversation, and to 
a personal acquaintance with the man. In 
this way he reenforced a good instinctive 
knowledge of character. There were, at 
rare intervals, appointments which wise 
155 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

friends criticised. Mr. Wolcott had, how- 
ever, the faculty of keeping men at their 
best, and encouraging the finer elements 
of their character. Like every public 
officer he suffered from his inability to get 
the men of his first choice to serve: not 
so much so, however, as most administra- 
tors, for there was such attractiveness and 
enthusiasm about him that men who came 
into his presence determined to refuse 
office fell before his persuasion and ap- 
peals to public duty. 

In making appointments, his first and 
last interest was the public service. He 
appreciated the traditional rights of par- 
ties, the necessity of harmonious political 
relations in certain departments, and the 
advisability of considering the requests of 
politicians when they urged good and effi- 
cient men who were also politically use- 
ful. He took no interest in appointments 
156 



GOVERNOR 

for the sake of political advantage, and 
frankly opposed any use of the public ser- 
vice for appointees unworthy of the posi- 
tion. 

" These fellows do not understand that 
such peanut politics is the most short- 
sighted policy for the party itself, let alone 
the cause of good government," he would 
say as he paced up and down the room. 
" The people can't be hoodwinked. Give 
them time, and they will discover which 
party is best administering the State." 

He fully appreciated, nevertheless, the 
worth of party organization and political 
work. He had the wisdom to trust the 
management and the details of the organ- 
ization to those who had undertaken them, 
and unless the administration of the party 
transgressed some moral principle, he fol- 
lowed it loyally. 

Because he was of this temper, and 
157 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

because, much as he believed in polit- 
ical parties, he had little interest in the 
machinery of the organization, many peo- 
ple called him a poor politician. He al- 
ways had an eye, not so much to the 
present as to the future welfare of his 
party; he had the statesman's prophetic 
vision. And confiding as he did in the 
good sense and honesty of the people, he 
knew that frank and high-minded action 
would in time win their approval. He 
wanted the people to know his mind: 
sometimes he seemed unnecessarily frank. 
At the state convention of 1896 the ques- 
tion of biennial state elections was a local 
issue. The party was divided on the sub- 
ject; the committee on resolutions, fearing 
an uncomfortable debate in convention, 
had quietly slipped that plank out of the 
platform. The resolutions were read; Mr. 
Wolcott was nominated and escorted to 
158 



GOVERNOR 

the platform, when to the dismay of the 
politicians on both sides he spoke out his 
conviction in favor of biennial elections. 
He wanted them and the Commonwealth 
to know just where he stood. Unwise 
from a short-sighted point of view, it was 
the wisdom of a sincere man, for the 
people saw that he was one in whose per- 
fect transparency they could trust. In 
short, his whole political life was one 
instinctive appeal behind party, politicians, 
and the machine to the intelligence and 
heart of the people. Men were surprised 
again and again that he was such a vote- 
getter. It was because in Massachusetts 
there was no political machine powerful 
enough to distort or suppress the senti- 
ments of the people. They voted as they 
felt. In voting for Roger Wolcott they 
felt that he was one of them: his strength 
was their strength; through him their 
159 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

authority was expressed and their rights 
were vindicated. 

Mr. Wolcott was fortunate in the time 
in which he came to the front. The year 
of his election as governor was a great 
Republican year. With all allowance for 
his good fortune, however, one cannot but 
marvel at the change in Massachusetts 
political parties from the time when Cleve- 
land and Russell swept the State, and 
when Russell swept the State without 
Cleveland, to the period of the great pop- 
ular support of Roger Wolcott during the 
seven years of his administration. He was 
fortunate in the conditions. The question 
may well be asked, however, whether he 
did not have something to do with the 
creation of the conditions, and whether 
the spirit expressed in his first Republican 
Club speech did not do much to open the 
way for him and his party to walk in. 
i6o 




CHAPTER VII 

THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

|HE incidents leading to the 
outbreak of the Spanish War 
are too recent to require nar- 
ration. Even the youth of the 
country recall the rising indignation of the 
people at the cruel treatment of Cuba by 
Spain, the destruction of the Maine, and 
the anxious suspense of the following 
weeks. The efforts of the administration 
towards a peaceful settlement, the debates 
in Congress, and the pressure of an angry 
people are fresh in all memories. 

Mr. Wolcott's sympathies were with the 
President in his efforts to use every honor- 
able means to avert the war. He counseled 
i6i 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

patience and self-restraint. Conscious, 
however, that war might come, he was 
advising with his military staff, conferring 
with the War Department at Washington, 
and doing everything possible without 
public knowledge to prepare the militia 
for immediate service. 

As early as December, 1897, four 
months before war was declared, the work 
of preparation was begun. On January 
15 an order was issued requiring all militia 
organizations at armory inspections to ap- 
pear equipped as if for two days' field 
duty. Commanding officers were perfect- 
ing themselves for active service. As the 
War Department at Washington said that 
they were unable to furnish supplies and 
equipment, these were sought for in many 
directions, so that if the emergency should 
come and an appropriation be made, they 
could be immediately obtained. 
162 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

On the 29th of March resolutions de- 
claring war with Spain and recognizing 
the independence of Cuba were introduced 
into both houses of Congress. 

On the nth of April the President, 
having become convinced that the re- 
sources of diplomacy were unavailing to 
alter the conditions in Cuba, asked Con- 
gress to give him power to intervene in 
behalf of the nation. 

On the 15th of April, Governor Wol- 
cott sent this special message to the legis- 
lature : — 

" To the Honorable the Senate and 
House of Representatives : — 

" In the present grave and threatening 
conditions of the relations of the govern- 
ment of the United States with the king- 
dom of Spain, growing out of the inhuman 
and unavailing warfare in the island of 
Cuba, I deem that the time has come when 
163 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

it is my duty to ask that your honorable 
bodies place in my hands the means to 
enable me to meet with promptness and 
efficiency whatever demands the exigen- 
cies of possible war may require the na- 
tional government to make upon the Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts. 

"Whenever, in the past, heroism and 
sacrifice in a just cause have been de- 
manded, Massachusetts has generously 
given of her blood and treasure. She will 
not falter now. 

" I ask that $500,000, or such part 
thereof as may be necessary, may be ap- 
propriated to be expended under the direc- 
tion of the commander-in-chief, in defray- 
ing the military and naval expenses which 
the existing emergency may render requi- 
site and proper." 

Within twenty-five minutes of the time 
that the message had left the governor's 
164 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

hand, it had been passed unanimously in 
each house, engrossed, carried back to the 
executive chamber, and approved by the 
governor. 

Such action was typical of the prompt- 
ness with which the Commonwealth met 
every call upon her in the nation's war 
against Spain. It was typical also of the 
confidence which she reposed in her chief 
magistrate. Said Mr. Wolcott, at the end 
of the war, in referring to this incident, 
" I consider the ready confidence of the 
legislature of Massachusetts, without re- 
gard to party, as one of the great honors 
of my life." 

On the 19th of April the resolution 
asked for by the President passed Con- 
gress, and on the 23d a call was issued for 
one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
troops. On April 25 war was declared 
by Congress. On the next day, the First 
165 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment, 
equipped for war, marched through Bos- 
ton to garrison Fort Warren. As in 1861, 
so now Massachusetts had the first state 
troops immediately available for national 
defense. 

A new generation had come to man- 
hood since in the sixties the regiments, 
after review by the governor, had passed 
through Boston to the seat of war. The 
men and women in whose memories those 
scenes were but as yesterday were re- 
kindled with enthusiasm as they heard the 
tramp of the soldiers, and the sound of 
the fife and drum; and the youth who 
had been bred to stories of the last war 
were alert to catch sight of the first regi- 
ment. 

Standing on the State House steps, 
whence Governor Andrew had reviewed 
the troops, was Governor Wolcott, sup- 
166 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

ported by his staff, and behind them a 
company of officials and ladies. Gratified 
as he was that Massachusetts should have 
responded so promptly to his call, there 
was a touch of personal pride in the hearts 
of himself and Mrs. Wolcott, for in the 
ranks of Battery A marched their oldest 
son, Roger, who, the evening before, had 
enlisted for service. Neither then nor later 
in the war did the governor give his son 
a commission, for his son's wish coin- 
cided with his own that he should go forth 
like other patriots, in the ranks. 

The whole city seemed to pour into the 
streets. Up Beacon Street the regiment 
marched, and as they passed the State 
House, the governor bared his head. 
Down State Street to the dock they 
tramped amidst the cheers of the people. 

The incident is worth}^ of record for its 
significance: the loyalty of Boston and 
167 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

the State to the nation in her time of trial, 
and their prompt response to her call. 

It is difficult for us, since the Spanish 
navy was so easily destroyed, to recall the 
nervousness and fear that ran along the 
New England coast lest Spanish cruisers 
should appear in the offing and bombard 
the cities. That their securities and valu- 
ables might be removed at the approach 
of danger, bankers and other citizens 
rented boxes in the safe deposit vaults of 
Worcester. One bank in that city in- 
creased its number of boxes under the 
pressure. Summer cottages could not be 
rented, and solid citizens looked anxious 
as they discussed the possibility of the de- 
struction of their buildings and property. 
Mayors and selectmen appealed to the 
governor for protection and fortifications. 

In response to a letter of inquiry from 
the governor, the Secretary of the Navy 
1 68 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

wrote that the War Department consid- 
ered Boston well protected, and that for 
the defense of other ports on the Massa- 
chusetts coast, a deep-sea patrol was being 
organized. He added, — 

" While, therefore, I do not think that 
the coast of Massachusetts will be in much 
danger from privateers or Spanish men- 
of-war, I do think it would be well to 
throw up earthworks at the most exposed 
points, the guns to be mounted and handled 
by the state militia." 

The governor and his military council 
had been anxiously waiting for orders or 
instructions about the troops from the 
War Department, but up to April 25 
none had been received. Meanwhile, 
citizens were volunteering their services, 
and others were importuning him for com- 
missions for themselves, their sons, or 
their friends. 

169 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

On the evening of the 25th, a telegram 
was received from the Secretary of War, 
stating that the number of troops required 
from Massachusetts under the call of the 
President, of April 25, would be four 
regiments of infantry, and three heavy 
batteries of artillery, and adding : — 

" It is the wish of the President that the 
regiments of the national guard or state 
militia shall be used as far as their num- 
bers will permit, for the reason that they 
are armed, equipped, and drilled. Please 
wire as early as possible what equip- 
ment, ammunition, arms, blankets, tents, 
etc., you have, and what additions you 
will require. 

"Please also state when troops will be 
ready for muster into the United States 
service. Details to follow by mail." 

The answer of the governor was imme- 
diate : — 

170 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

"Four regiments infantry, and three 
batteries artillery ready for immediate ser- 
vice. For infantry, sufficient equipment, 
ammunition, arms, blankets, and tents on 
hand; same for heavy artillery, except 
that we have no heavy guns or ammuni- 
tion." 

Information came to the governor that 
some of the officers and privates of the 
militia regiments, in their desire to enlist, 
would leave the militia service and enlist 
in the regular army, and there was danger 
that the organized militia now ready for 
service would be broken up. There was 
also a feeling that, as the militia regi- 
ments had entered the militia for state 
service, they could not fairly be called 
upon to enlist as a body for national ser- 
vice. 

As he could get no definite instructions 
from the War Department, and as mem- 
171 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

bers of his staff were told by the officials 
at Washington that the Massachusetts 
troops would be used for coast defense, 
the governor, by the advice of his military 
council, issued, on April 25, the following 
statement: — 

'^In view of the possibility that an im- 
portant theatre of war may be on or near 
the New England coast, and that a num- 
ber of troops substantially equal to the 
present militia force of the Commonwealth 
will be necessary for the coast defense in 
Massachusetts, I am advised by the coun- 
cil of officers to make public announce- 
ment of my opinion that it would be 
detrimental to the efficiency of the ser- 
vice to encourage or permit the depletion 
or disintegration of existing organizations 
by wholesale enlistments of officers or 
commands in the service of the United 
States. 

172 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

"If, as is probable, an additional num- 
ber of volunteers is called for beyond the 
present force of the militia, this number 
should, in my judgment, be made up in 
large measure by new enlistments of patri- 
otic citizens, not at present connected 
with organizations, although opportunities 
should also be open to individual members 
of the militia to volunteer, subject to a 
proper consideration of the welfare of the 
State. Any member of the militia desir- 
ing so to volunteer should make applica- 
tion for discharge to his commanding offi- 
cer, and await favorable action thereon. 
His place in the militia should then be 
filled by enlistment. The defense of the 
coast line of this Commonwealth is a 
necessary and honorable service, which 
should be loyally performed by all on 
whom the duty devolves, and should not 
be made secondary to any service else- 
173 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

where, however patriotic the motives 
which might influence such action, unless 
in obedience to definite orders from Wash- 
ington. The Commonwealth will respond 
promptly and enthusiastically to any call 
for volunteers which may be made, and 
believes that in maintaining the efficiency 
of her military organizations for coast de- 
fense, she is acting in accordance with the 
wishes and purposes of the national gov- 
ernment." 

The motive of the statement was imme- 
diately misunderstood. It was interpreted 
by some people in Washington as a notice 
to the administration that Massachusetts 
would take care of herself first and of the 
nation afterwards. The Massachusetts 
senators and representatives met and sent 
a telegram to the governor, urging him to 
fill up the quota of Massachusetts and 
leave the protection of the coast to the 
174 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

government. The governor telegraphed 
to Senator Lodge : — 

" Am informed there may be some mis- 
understanding as to the statement made 
by me regarding the use of state militia 
on our coast. I think a careful reading of 
statement makes meaning clear. Any and 
all definite orders from Washington for 
existing regiments or new regiments for 
service out of the State will be promptly 
obeyed. If existing regiments are left 
within the State for coast defense, their 
organization must be maintained, oppor- 
tunity to be given for enlistment of indi- 
viduals from militia for service elsewhere, 
but not of commands. No definite orders 
of any description yet received." 

The next day the governor publicly 
said: — 

" Any idea that the government of the 
Commonwealth has had an intention of 
175 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

antagonizing the national government in 
the matter of furnishing our quota of men 
for the war is entirely a mistaken one, 
and, I think, due to careless reading of 
my original statement. My position is 
simply this : I think our militia should be 
kept intact until it is specifically called for 
by the national government, and that it 
should not be allowed to disintegrate 
through the enlistment of any consider- 
able number of its members in the regular 
army. My reason for making the state- 
ment that seems to have caused so much 
comment was that I had been told that 
many members of the militia, in some 
cases whole companies, contemplated leav- 
ing their present organization to enlist in 
the regular army. That tendency I wished 
to arrest as far as practicable. 

" Now, I have supposed that our militia, 
under control of the national government, 
176 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

of course, would be utilized to man our 
own coast defenses, and I have never 
believed the national government would 
call upon them to go elsewhere, but sup- 
posed men from the inland States, that 
have no coast to defend, would be called 
on for distant service. And, assuming 
that our own men are to stay right here for 
home service, I have tried to keep their 
organization intact in order that we may 
get the best possible service from them. 
Now, in all this there is no antagonism to 
the national government, for I have not 
yet received an order from that direction. 
When it comes it will be obeyed, if it calls 
for only a portion of the militia, or for 
every man in it." 

On the night of the 27th the governor 

received the long-expected letter from the 

Secretary of War, giving the quota of 

Massachusetts for the national troops, four 

177 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

regiments of infantry and three batteries 
of artillery, to serve for two years unless 
sooner discharged. He acknowledged the 
letter by a telegram: "Massachusetts will 
respond with the utmost promptitude and 
patriotism to the request." 

On the 29th, the governor issued his 
call for state troops, designating the Sec- 
ond, Ninth, Eighth, and Sixth regiments 
of infantry of Massachusetts Volunteer 
Militia, giving to the officers and men of 
those regiments the first opportunity to 
volunteer for the national service. He 
thus preserved the integrity of the regi- 
ments, and filled the places of the men 
who were unable to volunteer with re- 
cruits, giving the preference to those who 
had some military training. The procla- 
mation closed with the words : — 

" I enjoin upon all officers and enlisted 
men the paramount duty of securing and 
178 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

maintaining in the volunteer force and in 
the state militia the highest military effi- 
ciency and the best citizenship. To this 
end all other considerations should be 
rigidly subordinated. 

"In both services alike there will be 
abundant opportunity for the display of 
that finer type of patriotism which not 
only dares and endures, but subordinates 
selfish interests and ambitions in a great 
cause. 

" May God save and bless the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts and the greater 
nation of which it is a part." 

In his boyhood Roger Wolcott had 
heard at home the earnest talk of his par- 
ents about the work of the Sanitary Com- 
mission, of which his father was the trea- 
surer. It was natural that as soon as the 
first steps toward military equipment and 
service had been taken he should prepare 
179 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

for the effects of war, — the sick and 
wounded soldiers. On April 30 he sent 
out an invitation to a number of citizens 
to meet at the council chamber to "form 
at once a soldiers' relief organization with 
purposes similar to those of the Sani- 
tary Commission during the Civil War." 
It was the first action of the kind taken 
in the country. On May 3 the Massa- 
chusetts Volunteer Aid Association was 
organized, and the next day it was at 
work. 

One by one the regiments went into 
camp at Framingham, the Second on May 
3, the Ninth on May 4, the Eighth on 
May 5, and the Sixth on May 6, and were 
mustered into the United States Volunteer 
Army. Their equipment was complete, — 
tents, ovens, medical stores, uniforms, 
guns, working suits, rubber blankets, and 
everything else required for service at the 
180 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

front. In order that the coast might have 
some defense and that the nervousness of 
the people might be relieved, detachments 
of the militia were sent, with the approval 
of the authorities at Washington and New 
York, to various points along the coast 
to camp for eight days, covering twenty- 
four days in all, preceding the arrival of 
the United States Volunteer troops. The 
Signal Corps established and maintained 
stations from Plum Island to the State 
House. 

On May ii came a message from the 
Secretary of War, asking how soon the 
governor could send a regiment to New 
York to be sent on a transport to Tampa. 
The answer was, " The Second Regiment 
of Infantry waits orders.'' 

The order came for the regiment to 
start the next day. On that day the gov- 
ernor went to the camp at Framingham. 
i8i 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

The regiment formed in a hollow square 
and stood at attention. Memories of his 
boyhood, of the camp at Readville, and of 
his farewell to his brother, must have shot 
through his mind. He lifted his hat and 
with a voice strong but full of emotion, 
said : — 

"Colonel Clark, officers and men: You 
are now about to leave the Commonwealth 
of your birth to endure hardship and peril 
in a righteous war waged for the promo- 
tion of humanity and to uplift an oppressed 
people from the domination of a cruel and 
corrupt power. 

" The Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
through me, their official representative at 
this time, bids you godspeed. Our hopes, 
yes, our high confidence, go with you, 
men of Massachusetts. We feel sure that 
as you carry the stars and stripes of the 
United States and the pure white flag of 
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THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

Massachusetts you will so bear yourselves 
that no stain of dishonor shall rest on 
these colors which to-day are committed 
to your keeping. 

" Keep a brave heart and a clean body. 
Remember that a part of the glory of Mas- 
sachusetts is committed to you. Be obe- 
dient, courageous, and temperate at all 
times. 

" May the God of our fathers hold you 
in his keeping and bring you glory and 
honor and peace." 

In the next few days he reviewed the 
other, regiments, and in touching and elo- 
quent words spoke to each. 

To the Sixth, which is a Middlesex 
regiment, he said : — 

"You are the direct heirs of the men 

who stood at the bridge at Concord and 

fired the shot heard round the world. 

You are the heirs of the men whose blood 

183 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

stained the mob-cursed streets of Balti- 
more, — a city to-day, thank God ! ready to 
greet a Massachusetts regiment with the 
full-hearted loyalty of a reunited nation. 

" Men of the Sixth, thus the memory of 
those and other great days in the history 
of the nation will travel with you wherever 
you go, and whether stationed to protect 
the national capitol, which symbolizes the 
dignity of the republic, or whether sum- 
moned to some other post of duty and 
danger, may every northern breeze bring 
you the whispers of the old Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, bidding you to 
quit you like men and be strong." 

As the Sixth Regiment entered Balti- 
more a few days later, they were formally 
welcomed by the mayor, and as they 
marched through the city by the same 
route which the old Sixth took in 1861, 
they were given a great ovation by all 
184 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

the citizens. It was the first act of the 
Spanish War which, followed by many 
others, strengthened the unity of the na- 
tion. 

On the 25th of May the President issued 
a call for 75,000 more volunteers, and the 
governor was notified by the Secretary of 
War that the share of Massachusetts was 
3041. His response was, "The number 
will be furnished on receiving detailed 
instructions." 

On the 15 th of July the governor gave 
commissions to the officers of the Fifth 
Regiment and presented colors to the regi- 
ment. 

Throughout that exceptionally hot sum- 
mer, the governor was at his office all day 
and often well into the night, organizing, 
directing, conferring, meeting the parents 
or friends of those who were reported sick, 
wounded, or dead; clearing his desk of its 
185 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

heavy load of letters, and responding to 
every appeal for counsel or sympathy. 

He followed with intense interest the 
movements of each of the regiments, and, 
as far as he knew them, of the individual 
soldiers and sailors of Massachusetts. 

The Second Regiment, arriving at 
Tampa, Fla., was the first infantry regi- 
ment to report in a United States camp. 
It was also the first volunteer regiment to 
land in Cuba. It participated in the en- 
gagement at Siboney, was on the firing 
line at El Caney and San Juan, suffering 
in killed and wounded, and was intrenched 
before Santiago at the time of the surren- 
der. 

The Sixth was ordered to Cuba, but did 
not disembark there. Ordered to Porto 
Rico, it was engaged with the enemy, and 
in October returned to Boston by trans- 
port. 

i86 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

The Eighth went into camp at Chicka- 
mauga. Suffering severely from illness 
there, it was moved into camp at Lex- 
ington, Ky., and Americus, Ga., gaining 
wherever it went an excellent name for 
discipline and equipment. It went later 
to Cuba to reduce the district of Matan- 
zas to order. 

The Ninth, stationed at Camp Alger, 
Va., was ordered to Cuba, and was eigh- 
teen days in the trenches, suffering se- 
verely from sickness. 

The Fifth, which was the only Mas- 
sachusetts regiment to have time to 
" harden " for service, went into camp in 
South Carolina, and showed itself to be of 
the very best material and discipline. 

The First Regiment of Heavy Artillery 
did excellent service in manning the coast 
defenses of Massachusetts throughout the 
summer. 

187 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

The naval brigade, made up of eight 
divisions, was detailed on various duties. 
One detachment, ordered to Brooklyn, 
N. Y., was the first naval volunteer or- 
ganization in the country to report for 
duty. Details of the brigade served upon 
the United States Ship Prairie on the 
coast defense fleet, and later in blockade 
duty on the southern coast of Cuba; also 
upon the monitors and other vessels for 
coast defense. Details also responded to 
the calls of the government in other lines 
of service. 

The promptness in response to call and 
the excellent equipment of the Massachu- 
setts troops led the War Department to 
turn to them for service at the front. 
Hence Massachusetts had a larger propor- 
tion of her troops in Cuba and Porto Rico 
than any other State in the Union. 

With the victory at Santiago and the 
i88 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

close of the war came the return of the 
soldiers. The country had already been 
aroused at what seemed to be gross in- 
efficiency in the War Department in 
caring for the health and comfort of the 
men. Added to this were the inexpe- 
rience of many officers and the indiffer- 
ence of others to camp discipline and sani- 
tary conditions. These features, combined 
with the fact that Northern men, unaccli- 
mated, were under a torrid sun and in 
malarial districts, resulted in an appalling 
sick list, crowded hospitals, and many 
deaths. 

The Second and Ninth regiments, whose 
ranks had been thinned by hard service, 
were sent back from Cuba to the camp at 
Montauk Point in filthy transports, arriv- 
ing, as the governor telegraphed Secretary 
Alger, in a " pitiable condition." In the 
organization of the Volunteer Aid Society, 
189 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

through his military staff, and by the vol- 
unteer work of civilians like Sherman 
Hoar, who laid down his life in that noble 
service, the governor had done everything 
in his power to anticipate the sickness and 
sufferings of war. 

A steamship was bought by the Volun- 
teer Aid Society, and, having been re- 
named " The Bay State," was fitted up with 
every appliance for transport hospital ser- 
vice. Though intended especially for the 
aid of Massachusetts soldiers, she was 
always at the service of any troops need- 
ing her. She plied from port to port, 
bringing home sick soldiers, carrying food 
for invalids, and medical supplies; and 
apart from her immediate service, gave 
the nation an object lesson as to what 
could be done by the volunteer work of 
patriotic citizens aided by the best medi- 
cal skill. 

190 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

At a dinner of the Republican Club in 
October, 1898, the governor, after refer- 
ring to the fear of attack on the part of the 
people along the seacoast, said : — 

" It was five o'clock on the afternoon of 
April 27 that the first definite orders re- 
garding the quota of this Commonwealth 
were received by me at the State House. 
It was a call for four regiments of infantry 
and three heavy batteries, and it was stated 
that, in providing this quota, the prefer- 
ence was to be given to the National 
Guard or the Militia, as we are in the 
habit of calling it in this Commonwealth, 
and that the several commands as organ- 
ized would be accepted in filling the quota. 
The next morning, the four infantry regi- 
ments were designated in general order of 
seniority, — the Second, the Ninth, the 
Eighth, and the Sixth. The next day the 
First Heavy Artillery Regiment was ac- 
191 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

cepted as a unit, instead of the three bat- 
teries of heavy artillery called for in the 
original quota. On April 29, two days 
after the first knowledge of what the Mas- 
sachusetts quota was to be, orders were 
issued for these four infantry regiments to 
go to camp at Framingham on the four 
consecutive days beginning with May 2, 
and that was done. Within five days of 
the call, Massachusetts regiments were in 
camps equipped with tentage, guns, — not, 
to be sure, provided with smokeless pow- 
der, but the best and most recent Spring- 
field rifle that the government at that time 
could furnish. 

" These regiments remained, as you are 
aware, at Framingham for a period not 
made necessary by their lack of prepara- 
tion, but made necessary by the fact that 
arrangements at Washington had not ad- 
vanced suflSciently far for definite orders 
192 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

to be issued as to their new places of 
assembly; but on May 13 the gallant 
Second Regiment left for Florida, to be 
followed on the i6th by the Eighth to 
Chickamauga, on the 20th by the Sixth to 
Camp Alger, and on the 31st by the Ninth, 
also to Camp Alger. I wish I could say 
what is in my heart about these regiments. 
They were made up of the young men of 
Massachusetts, brave, earnest, loyal to the 
government, ready to sacrifice their lives 
if need be at the call of duty, and they 
have made a record that will forever re- 
main an honorable record in the annals of 
this Commonwealth. 

" Your president has spoken of the de- 
gree of preparation and equipment with 
which those regiments were placed in the 
field. Testimony to the superiority of 
Massachusetts troops comes not alone from 
Massachusetts men. It has come to my 
193 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

knowledge and to my ears from men from 
other States, from officers in the regular 
army, and from newspaper correspondents 
and others in position to judge. . . . 

" The service of these Massachusetts 
regiments is known to you. You know 
the perils, the dangers, the hardships, the 
disease they have been called upon to 
meet. I can assure you that the spirit 
that sent them forth is still strong and 
fresh in the hearts of those who have re- 
turned. 

" It may interest you to know how many 
troops Massachusetts has furnished in this 
war. I give figures that are as accurate 
as they can be made up to the present 
time. . . . Under the first and second call 
Massachusetts furnished 6988 men and in 
the signal corps and regulars about 1500 
more, making a total of 8500. In the naval 
brigade about 600, and in the navy and 
194 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

marine corps about 2000, bringing the 
total in the army and navy up to 11,000.^ 
Out of the sum of $500,000 placed in 
my hands for expenditure at my discretion, 
the sum of $307,000 has already been 
paid out, chiefly for arms, equipment, pay 
allowance, subsistence, and clothing. The 
legislature of Massachusetts, with wise 
generosity, provided that for all soldiers 
of Massachusetts, whether enlisting in the 
volunteer service of the United States or 
in the regular service, whether on land or 
afloat, the Commonwealth would supple- 
ment the payment made by the United 
States government by a monthly payment 
of seven dollars. Under this generous 
policy, over $210,000 has already been 
paid from the treasury of the Common- 

1 Report of the Adjutant-General of Massachu- 
setts, 1 898 : Call of the Government, 73SS men ; 
number furnished, 11,780. 

195 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

wealth. Not only that, but it provided 
that upon the death of a soldier, this 
monthly payment of seven dollars should 
be continued after his decease. The Com- 
monwealth has also made provisions for 
hospital treatment for all soldiers of the 
Commonwealth in whatever hospitals they 
may have been received, and in cases 
where the condition of the family is such 
as to make it necessary, it aids also in the 
final solemn rites of burial. 

" Your president has referred in brief to 
a part of the work of the Volunteer Aid 
Association. . . . Two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars has been placed in the 
treasury of that association, without per- 
sonal solicitation, coming from the rich 
out of their plenty, coming from those of 
moderate means, where a gift of this nature 
meant the depriving themselves of some 
comfort or luxury, and coming also, thank 
196 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

God for it, from the very poor. There 
have been the most touching stories told 
of how people rose up to furnish this 
assistance to the soldiers and sailors of this 
war. A stevedore. comes into the office 
with his hand full of one dollar bills, and 
says: ^ Those have been collected from 
the 'longshoremen on our wharves.' He 
does n't ask for a receipt. He simply says, 
' That is for the soldiers.' Factory girls, 
laborers, school children, everybody, 
seemed desirous of aiding in some way 
and up to their means. In nearly every 
city and town branch associations have 
been organized. They have received the 
soldiers upon their return; they have 
looked after them; they have looked after 
their families; they have carried on an 
immense correspondence when the fami- 
lies, through ignorance of the whereabouts 
of their loved ones, were unable to do so; 
197 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

and in this way, stretching out their hands 
and grasping the hands of men and women 
of like spirit with themselves, they built 
up a strong association that has been fruit- 
ful of good, and on which, in my humble 
opinion, the blessings of God have abun- 
dantly rested." 

Excellent as is this statement, and hon- 
orable as is the record, the governor 
necessarily omitted one of the finest ele- 
ments in the history — in fact he was un- 
conscious of it — the confidence, enthusi- 
asm, and loyalty kindled by the personality 
of the governor himself. There was that 
about him which defies analysis, which 
eludes definition, but which is found in 
those rare characters, who, like Philip 
Sydney, Chevalier Bayard, or Robert 
Louis Stevenson, gain our confidence, win 
our admiration, kindle our affection, and 
who, in their unconsciousness, make us 
198 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

conscious that we are in chivalric com- 
pany. 

Roger Wolcott was a practical New 
Englander with a dash of idealism, with- 
out which no New England character is 
complete. From boyhood he gained the 
affection of all sorts of people. He drank 
deep, in poems, history, and the Bible, of 
chivalric life. In form and countenance, 
in presence and atmosphere, he was of na- 
ture's noblest. 

When, then, a transport loaded with re- 
turning soldiers steamed slowly up the har- 
bor, and when the men, sick and wasted 
with disease, caught sight of the governor, 
or in their cots between decks heard his 
voice, it was as if they had in one moment 
been carried into the very heart of New 
England, to health and home. 

Was a returning regiment expected by 
rail? The governor would take train to 
199 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

Springfield and be among the first to wel- 
come the men. He led the cheers, and in 
person directed how everything should be 
done for their comfort. A message from 
the lower harbor that the Bay State, Vig- 
ilant, or Olivette was signaled, prompted 
him to drop official business and in all 
haste reach the dock or take the tug to 
meet the men, tenderly care for the sick, 
place them in ambulances, or assist them 
to their homes. 

At the hospitals he visited them. In the 
wan faces and wasted forms his sympa- 
thies saw again his brother Huntington 
lying upon his bed at Milton, sinking 
into rest. His natural reserve was broken 
through, his voice became tender, and he 
told them the story of his boyhood sor- 
row. Then, as one and another soldier 
died, he sent to those in the home messages 
weighted with sympathy. Anxious parents 
200 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

and friends followed him to his home at 
Blue Hill. There they received his hospi- 
tality and hopeful word. They all spoke of 
him as " our Governor; " they sought him, 
however, for himself. His solicitude ran 
out to every soldier. Men from Maine and 
New Hampshire, passing through Boston, 
experienced his kindness. " Extend the 
same treatment to the regulars," was his 
message to those who were caring for 
Massachusetts soldiers. 

Thus was Roger Wolcott bound by ties 
of affection and sympathy to thousands of 
men, women, and children throughout the 
State. His friends saw that he was work- 
ing hard; citizens knew that he was ad- 
ministering the high office in trying times 
with ability and devotion; the people were 
feeling the touch of his sympathetic heart. 

The fourteenth of October, 1899, marked 
the closing incident of the war. 

20I 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

It was a brilliant day. The population 
from all parts of the State had poured into 
Boston, for it was the day on which the 
Commonwealth and the city gave their 
welcome to Admiral Dewey, the hero of 
Manila. The morning was given up to 
the procession. The whole state militia 
was in line. Later the officers and sailors 
of the flagship Olympia led the column 
through the gates of the Common to the 
parade ground. The governor took his po- 
sition on the slope of the hill just below 
the soldiers' and sailors' monument. Two 
hundred trumpeters gave the call to col- 
ors, and seventeen sergeants with their 
colors stood before the governor. The 
commanding officers took their positions 
in front • and one by one the officers turned 
the colors over to the governor, who, in 
accepting them, said: — 

" On behalf of the Commonwealth of 
202 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

Massachusetts and in her name, I receive 
into her perpetual custody these flags borne 
by Massachusetts men in a righteous and 
triumphant cause, and emblematic of the 
power of the nation and of the fortitude 
and valor of her sons. 

" Worn with service on land and afloat, 
in camp, in garrison, and in battle, their 
lustre is undimmed and their radiance un- 
tarnished. In the presence of our honored 
and illustrious guest and of the military 
organizations which cherished and guarded 
them, with popular acclaim, and to the 
strains of martial music, they are returned 
with fitting honors to the Commonwealth 
which a few short months ago sent forth 
their defenders with prayers and tears, and 
which, alas! proudly mourns many of her 
sons who return not with them. 

" To officers and enlisted men she now 
publicly and gratefully acknowledges her 
203 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

obligation for the courage and fortitude 
which have added to her historic fame, 
and have borne witness that the memories 
of '765 of 181 2, and of 1861, have not 
been unheeded by her children. Like their 
sires, the loyal and generous youth of 1898 
showed themselves quick to hear the sum- 
mons to duty and danger, and ready to suf- 
fer and to die if need be, wheresoever that 
summons might lead them. 

" The gain will be worth the sacrifice. 
To have banished oppression, and to have 
opened the way to health and order and 
justice among communities which for cen- 
turies have felt the iron heel of despotism, 
will be the justification of history and the 
praise of future time. 

" So long as a single thread of their 

silken fabric resists the slow ravages of 

time, these banners shall be jealously and 

reverently guarded by the Commonwealth, 

204 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

together with the precious memorials of 
an earlier and more stubborn conflict, 
mutely but eloquently to teach their les- 
son of patriotism and loyalty, and to breathe 
their inspiration to the generations that are 
to come after us." 



205 




CHAPTER VIII 

THE LAST YEAR 

OR ten years Roger Wolcott 
had served the Common- 
wealth: three years as repre- 
sentative, three as lieutenant- 
governor, one as lieutenant-governor and 
acting governor, and three as governor. 
He had brought to each position high 
character, ability, and devotion; he had 
grown steadily in force, wisdom, and 
statesmanship; he had gained the affec- 
tion as well as the confidence of the peo- 
ple of the Commonwealth, and his name 
was held in respect at Washington, and 
in many other parts of the country. His 
own wishes coincided with the traditions 
206 



THE LAST YEAR 

of the State, that he should lay down his 
office of governor at the end of three 
years. 

Seven continuous years of such consci- 
entious and efficient service as he had 
given draw upon the vitality, and tend to 
age a man. On the last day of public duty, 
Mr. Wolcott left his home on Common- 
wealth Avenue, and walked to the State 
House with the same elastic step that 
was his at the first. The body was erect, 
the smile and bow were as bright and 
cordial as ever; the hair was white, but 
that was an inheritance; the color of his 
face was bright and fresh. It was clear, 
however, to those who were near him, that 
he needed a change, and he himself was 
anxious to break away from associations 
which had been happy, but which re- 
minded him only of work. His children, 
too, had grown up during his public life, 
207 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

and although he was a devoted father in 
the busiest days, he wanted to know them 
better, and to have some months of com- 
plete companionship with them and his 
wife, who had been a strong support to 
him in his public duties as well as in the 
home. He anticipated, with the zest of a 
boy before the holidays, a trip with his 
family in Europe. 

Mr. Wolcott was a man of domestic 
tastes and social temperament. To those 
who knew him intimately, his public life 
was the incidental expression of his char- 
acter, laid upon him by the people, and 
entered on by him from a sense of duty, 
public spirit, and the laudable ambition to 
make himself felt for the good of others. 
The centre of his life was his home, and 
not the State House: the chair that best 
suited him was not in the executive cham- 
ber, but in the circle of his nearest friends. 
208 



THE LAST YEAR 

Like his father, he made his home in 
Boston, and at Blue Hill, Milton. In each 
place he built a house for himself, near 
enough to his parents to be in and out 
through the day. Until the death of his 
mother in 1899, his devotion to her was 
constant beyond measure. Simple, almost 
severe in his tastes, he desired comfort, but 
not luxury. He was careful in expendi- 
ture, exact in all money matters; realizing 
like a true Yankee the value of money, 
and desiring to give to his children an ex- 
ample in judicious living^ As soon as he 
could escape from work, he sought his 
wife and children. At Blue Hill, it was 
his delight to explore the by-roads, drop 
in on the neighbors, and greet his fellow- 
townsmen. " A decently constituted man 
goes back to nature as iron to a magnet," 
he used to say. In all the interests of the 
community he was interested, the church, 
209 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

the school, the roads, and town improve- 
ments. When an evening was free in 
Boston, it was given to his home or to the 
company of his nearer friends. He be- 
lieved in the abiding influence of the home. 
He always retained his boyish simplicity, 
and counted no time lost that was given 
to the most trivial interest of his children, 
or to the answering of every question. In 
their names — Roger, William Prescott, 
Samuel Huntington, Cornelia Frothing- 
ham, and Oliver — he gathered the family 
associations of past and present, and he de- 
lighted to watch the family characteristics 
revealing themselves. To Mrs. Wolcott 
he always turned with perfect confidence 
for sympathy and support. In the first 
years of marriage, a sorrow had crossed 
their life in the death of the first son, Hunt- 
ington Frothingham. 

Among his friends, he was at fifty what 

2IO 



THE LAST YEAR 

he was at twenty, simple, frank, alert, 
bright, full of wit and story, or serious in 
conversation. His force and purity of 
character created an atmosphere in what- 
ever company he entered. His presence 
never suppressed fun or light talk, and the 
gayest welcomed his coming; the tone, 
however, was always pure, elevated, and 
refined. He never lost the reserve of his 
youth : very few, perhaps none, of his 
friends ever felt that they reached his 
inmost self. He knew it and regretted it; 
but the reserve was something born with 
him, and no doubt it gave him an advan- 
tage in some public associations. 

He was sensitive to the feelings and 
prejudices of others, and to the conditions 
about him. It was this that gave him the 
tact to extricate himself from difficult situ- 
ations, and to say the right thing at the 
right time in his public speeches. He 

211 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

never said of a man behind his back what 
he would not say to his face; and before 
he criticised or condemned a man, was 
always sure of his facts. 

He believed in frankness in public as 
well as private life. When the Republican 
party was hesitating as to its position on 
the question of gold and silver, he said, at 
a dinner in honor of ex-Governor Bout- 
well's eightieth birthday: — 

" I believe, further, speaking as a Re- 
publican to Republicans, that it would be 
well-nigh fatal to the Republican party to 
go into the next Congressional election 
without having shown that it, at all events, 
whether it succeeds or not, is placed with- 
out question in the line of aggressive hon- 
esty in legislation. 

" I believe and have always believed, 
whether temporary defeat or partial lack 
of success comes or not that, on a question 

212 



THE LAST YEAR 

of that nature, an appeal to the educated 
and intelligent honesty of the people of 
the United States is absolutely sure to re- 
sult in victory in the long run. There 
is honesty abroad through the land, my 
friends, just exactly as there is heroism 
among the people of the United States." 

He had a large share of the Puritan con- 
science, which drove him, but drove him 
happily and by his own consent, from duty 
to duty throughout the day. Even plea- 
sure, friendly talk, and " loafing " had to 
him their uses in enabling him to do 
better work the next day. Such a rea- 
sonable conscience creates, perhaps, the 
most healthy, happy, and useful manhood. 

He left his home in the morning earlier 
than most of his busy friends, and, after 
a brisk walk, greeting his neighbors, the 
cabmen, school children, policemen, and 
other citizens as he passed up the avenue, 
213 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

through the Public Garden, and by the 
Common, was at his desk and well into 
his mail before nine o'clock. The list of 
his public duties in his early manhood 
reveals the industrious nature of the man. 
Whether in office or out, he worked up to 
the limit of his strength; he too often 
worked beyond it. Strong and vigorous 
as he looked, his physique was too fine 
and nervous to stand great strain, and four 
attacks of pneumonia during manhood gave 
him warning that there was a limit to his 
endurance. 

From his earliest childhood, religion 
was an element in the daily life of the 
horrie. His parents were devout Unitari- 
ans. Every morning was opened with 
family prayer, at which parents, bo3^s, and 
guests read in order the verses of a chap- 
ter of the Bible. Then all joined in the 
Lord's Prayer. On Sunday the piano was 
214 



THE LAST YEAR 

closed, and everybody went morning and 
afternoon to church. Strict as were the 
religious habits of the household, there 
were such parental influence and loving 
guidance as to win the sympathy of the 
boys. To Roger Wolcott religion was a 
natural and essential element of life. His 
faith was simple. He had little interest 
in dogma or the differences of theologies. 
He did, however, have a profound belief 
in the teachings of the Christian faith as 
he understood them. He had no sympa- 
thy with the idea that faith and the church 
were matters of taste or convenience. To 
him the Christian Church, representing 
the Christian faith, was essential to the 
welfare of society and to the upbuilding of 
men's characters. He believed in the 
church and in public worship. He was 
a communicant. Every Sunday he went 
with his family to service at King's Chapel 
215 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

in Boston or in the Unitarian Church at 
Milton, and every month received the 
communion. 

His addresses at the annual festivals of 
the Unitarian Association were always 
keenly anticipated, and they reveal some- 
thing of his religious attitude. 

Called upon to welcome the clergy in 
behalf of the laity in 1889, he said: — 

" Sweep away, if you must, literal faith 
in the Old or the New Testament, belief 
in the miracles, or whatever else science 
or scholarship shall undermine; but re- 
member always that the life and teachings 
of Christ are the noblest, the most sacred 
facts within the knowledge of man, and 
are to be approached, never with flippancy 
or sensationalism, but with the bowed 
knee of reverence and faith." 

Again, in 1893, he said: "Flippancy in 
the pulpit and that futile straining after 
216 



THE LAST YEAR 

effect which aims to make the messenger 
of greater import than the message, are to 
me abhorrent. The congregation demands 
of its minister sincerity of life and conse- 
cration and reverence of spirit. If these 
be lacking, brilliancy of intellect, elo- 
quence, learning, will never possess the 
lunar force which heaps up the billows 
and draws the tides." 

He said in 1897: "And so we recog- 
nize that our religion rests not on dogma 
or creed. We recognize that true religion 
is a fair blossom that blooms in the heart 
of him who strives to pattern his life on 
the teachings and on the life of Jesus 
Christ. We recognize all who strive hum- 
bly to follow in his footsteps. We do not 
limit the title of ' Christian ' to one pro- 
fession or to another. We recognize all 
good men of every profession. We know 
that as good a Christian as stands in a 
217 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

pulpit or sits in the pew visits, as the lov- 
ing physician, the bed of suffering. We 
know that he who strives in the court of 
justice to lay down the rules of everlasting 
right that shall regulate the conduct of 
man and man, that the citizen who gives 
loyal service to the State, that all men in- 
spired with like purpose, are good Chris- 
tians." 

The bond between himself and Har- 
vard University was one of the strong and 
happy influences of his life. His college 
career, his oration, and his 'services as 
instructor and overseer are already famil- 
iar to us. 

He always felt it a privilege to respond 
to the call of the University. Was it to 
welcome the Freshmen in Sanders Theatre 
on the first Monday evening of the term? 
He seized the opportunity to preach his 
gospel of the college life as a preparation 
218 



THE LAST YEAR 

for the service of the State. Did he pre- 
side at a Harvard- Yale debate? By his 
tact he kindled the best of feeling and 
softened the disappointment of defeat. 
Even in one of the great football games, 
he with Theodore Roosevelt, then gov- 
ernor of New York, stood before the thou- 
sands of students and graduates and led 
their cheers and songs. 

When the class of '70 celebrated their 
twenty-fifth anniversary in 1895, Roger 
Wolcott was of course chief marshal. 
Every graduate who was there remembers 
the ardor with which, mounted on a chair 
in the yard near Massachusetts Hall, he 
called off the classes in their order, and 
with what enthusiasm his ringing voice led 
the cheers at the dinner in Memorial Hall. 
It was one of the happiest days of his life, 
for his position and popularity were a 
recognition from those by whom he was 
219 



ROGER WOLCOTT * 

best known and whose judgment he most 
esteemed. 

For four successive Commencements 
he represented the Commonwealth. Es- 
corted from Boston, according to ancient 
custom, by the Lancers with their bril- 
liant uniforms, he entered the college gate 
amid the applause of the graduates. In 
the theatre, during the procession to Me- 
morial Hall, and at the dinner, he was 
always sure of cordial greetings. 

Behind his official words was always 
the tender tone of a son receiving the wel- 
come of his alma mater. Upon receiving 
his first welcome as the representative of 
the Commonwealth in 1896 he said: — 

'' It has always seemed to me that, 
should it ever fall to me to receive words 
of commendation at this feast, I should 
prefer to receive them for something done 
in the public service, that makes to-day 
220 



THE LAST YEAR 

the strongest demand on the educated 
man. I would not obscure the services of 
the quiet scholar and teacher, the physi- 
cian, the lawyer, the scientist: I mean 
something a little different. All of this 
service can be rendered, and is rendered, 
in every country and under every form of 
government, but what I wish to emphasize 
is that the government of America makes 
further demands upon citizenship, de- 
mands that I see answered by the men 
here. 

"I need not speak of the service done by 
lawyers and business men. To the college 
man there must be impossible the spirit of 
snobbishness. Leave that to the merely 
rich. In him there must be no chilling of 
enthusiasm, no enfeebled patriotism. The 
education that Harvard gives must arouse 
enthusiasm, kindle ardor, add truer flames 
to the altar of patriotism. 

221 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

" The graduates of Harvard are render- 
ing this exalted service all over the land. 
Do not mistake that I refer to those in 
office simply. It is the spirit, not the 
office, by which this college would show 
her graduates to be true to the highest 
lessons of her past." 

His last official message to the univer- 
sity in 1 899 was characteristic in style and 
thought ; — 

"This stately and historic Common- 
wealth comes here and greets the gracious 
and benign figure of the University whom 
we, her sons, love to reverence and honor 
as our alma mater. The ' cloth of gold ' 
is made up of the woven tapestry which 
represents the history of the Common- 
wealth and the University. It is red with 
the deep crimson of manhood; it is white 
with the clear color of a pure life and high 
endeavor. And here and there, every- 
222 



THE LAST YEAR 

where shot through the fabric, are the 
golden threads that tell of the few happy 
lives that have attained distinction and are 
remembered as the years pass by. 

" In that great ode, which seems to add 
something of even greater consecration to 
this hall, already made sacred by the lives 
it commemorated, Lowell spoke of the 
white shields of expectation hung upon 
the arms of generous youth and catching 
the rays of morn. Upon these walls hang 
not only the white shields of expectation, 
but also the dinted, but unsullied shields 
of high attainment and noble achievement. 

"If we allow the imagination to travel 
beyond the mystery of death, we may be- 
lieve that here are assembled to-day not 
only the living sons of the Commonwealth 
and of the University, but also those 
knightly spirits who, in the past, have won 
the golden spur of noble manhood, and of 
223 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

generous service to Commonwealth and to 
University. 

" If the sphinx of the coming days re- 
clines silent and without utterance, with 
no prophetic CEdipus to read the riddles 
of the future that lie within her closed lips, 
nevertheless may Commonwealth and Uni- 
versity alike face the problems of the 
future, whatever they may be, not with 
despair, nor with despondency, nor with 
fear, but with the high and lofty courage 
which is born of conscious strength." 

On the next day, however, he spoke not 
for the Commonwealth, but for himself. It 
was at the Phi Beta Kappa dinner. Both 
orator and poet had touched upon national 
questions, and had expressed in somewhat 
pessimistic tones the outlook for the fu- 
ture. Roger Wolcott was by temperament 
and conviction an optimist. Intelligent 
and timely criticism he respected; but the 
224 



THE LAST YEAR 

critical attitude which seeks faults rather 
than virtues offended him. Only a week 
before, at Holy Cross College, he had 
spoken from his own experience : — 

" If I have learned nothing else since I 
have held office, I have learned to believe 
in the American people. I have learned 
to believe that virtue is more common 
than vice ; that noble manhood and woman- 
hood have not died out from us. I believe 
God has made a law of progress, not a law 
of retrogression, and I urge you, young 
men, not to give way to pessimism. Be 
courageous, be hopeful. Believe in the 
destiny of America; believe in the purpose 
of Almighty God; believe with all hope 
in the future." 

When Mr. Wolcott was called upon to 
speak, it was evident that his deepest con- 
victions of patriotism and hope had been 
touched and fired. He had a temper of 
225 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

which he had had the mastery for many 
years; it did not master him now. He 
gave his convictions, however, freedom of 
utterance, and spoke with warmth and 
power. He presented the nation in her 
nobler features, and appealed for a deeper 
loyalty to her chosen leaders. The sun- 
light, pouring through the windows, was 
blinding some of those at the upper table: 
a student, throwing off his college gown, 
had pinned it across the sash to shut out 
the light. In the full flood of his speech, 
appealing to the courage and loyalty of 
educated men, Mr. Wolcott caught the 
allegory, and pointing to the window, 
said, " Do not let the academic gown 
(absit omen) shut out the sunlight." As 
he started to leave the hall, the whole 
assembly rose and cheered enthusiasti- 
cally. Little they realized that they were 
giving him his last farewell from Harvard. 
226 



THE LAST YEAR 

He had spoken his message in word and 
in life. Amidst the generous applause of 
Harvard, he passed out of the door of Mas- 
sachusetts Hall and through the College 
gate. 

While Mr. Wolcott was planning his 
trip to Europe, his friends and a great 
body of citizens were questioning how the 
nation could make use of such an efficient 
servant. 

It is one of the glories of our demo- 
crac}^, and at the same time one of its mis- 
fortunes, that after a man has held high 
office he returns to private citizenship. 
Unless there happens to come some change 
in the movement of political life and offices, 
the State or the nation may lose the bene- 
fit of such a man's large experience, high 
character, and public service. 

It was well known that Mr. Wolcott 
had the laudable ambition to serve the 
227 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

nation when he could do so consistently 
with other duties. In fact, the one compel- 
ling motive of his life was that of public 
service. He never sought an office, but 
when an office came to him, he accepted it 
with a sense of pleasure and gratification as 
an opportunity to use his powers in congen- 
ial work, and in the service of his country. 

For the present he was happy in his 
freedom. He was conscious that he had 
done his work well, and that the people 
were grateful to him and trusted him. The 
future could take care of itself. A dinner 
given him by a number of his old friends, 
who were also representative citizens, was 
a pleasant token to him of appreciation by 
those in whose confidence and affection 
he took delight. Congratulations through 
the press and by letter continued to come 
to him. 

Five weeks after his retirement, Presi- 
228 



THE LAST YEAR 

dent McKinley offered him an honorable 
though arduous position upon the Philip- 
pine Commission, which was to have 
authority to organize civil government 
throughout that great archipelago. The 
work of the commission interested him 
deeply, and the great opportunity for serv- 
ing his fellow-men appealed to him, but his 
duty to his family compelled him to de- 
cline. Citizens continued to seize him for 
public functions. He presided at a public 
meeting to prepare for the reception by 
Harvard University of 1400 Cuban teach- 
ers. He presided also at a great dinner 
of the National Association of Manufac- 
turers, at which several members of the 
President's cabinet were present, and 
spoke upon the future relations of the 
nation to the Philippines : — 

" If our aim shall be only to see how 
much we can get out of these new posses- 
229 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

sions by extortion, trickery, or corruption, 
then will our occupancy of them be a 
curse to their inhabitants, and a shame to 
us and our children. If our purpose shall 
be to lift them to a higher civilization, to 
give them education, honest administration, 
peace and industrial prosperity, with an 
ever-increasing degree of self-government, 
then will these years of the nineteenth 
century add one other lustrous page to our 
national story. 

" It is not given to man to see with cer- 
tainty into the future, but unless I mistake 
the character and purposes of my country- 
men, they will meet this new crisis and 
these novel responsibilities as they have 
met every other great crisis in our history, 
with seriousness of judgment, right pur- 
pose, intelligence, and courage; and the 
day will come in the not distant future 
when these backward peoples shall grate- 
230 



THE LAST YEAR 

fully concede that the great republic of the 
west is not only powerful and just, but 
generous and beneficent as well." 

Early in May he, with his family, sailed 
for Europe. Visiting Paris and the Expo- 
sition, to which Mrs. Wolcott, represent- 
ing the department of charities and cor- 
rection, was a delegate from the national 
government, and from the city of Boston, 
they passed on to Holland, Germany, 
and Switzerland. Returning by way of 
England, they arrived home on November 
4, in time for Mr. Wolcott, after making 
a campaign speech the next evening at 
Quincy, to vote, on November 6, for 
President McKinley and for his friend 
and co-worker. Governor Crane, and for 
the Republican party, of which he was a 
presidential elector. 

While he was in Europe, Mr. Wolcott 
received from the President an appoint- 
231 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

ment to be ambassador to Italy. This was 
welcomed with hearty commendation by 
the press throughout the country. With 
his boys at school and in college, he did 
not feel at liberty to separate himself from 
them: for the present, home was his place, 
and he declined the mission. 

The city of Washington was preparing 
for the centennial celebration of the na- 
tional capital, on December 9. The gov- 
ernors of the States and the national offi- 
cials were to be there. Mr. Wolcott had 
been selected as one of the four speakers. 

On the sixteenth of November he was 
taken ill. Symptoms of typhoid fever, 
which thirty-five years ago had laid his 
brother low, appeared. His good consti- 
tution, temperate life, and all other condi- 
tions, seemed to point towards a favorable 
result. The disease steadily increased its 
hold, the strength yielded, life ebbed out. 
232 



THE LAST YEAR 

On December 21, before the people real- 
ized the danger, Roger Wolcott fell asleep. 

For the moment the Commonwealth 
seemed to stand still. It was in the after- 
noon. The sun dropped to its setting. The 
news spread fast, faster than the press 
could carry it. Word went from city to 
town, from town to village. The mill- 
hand, leaving work with his dinner-pail in 
hand, stopped as he heard the news, and 
then passed on to tell his fellows of the 
kind word once spoken to him by the gov- 
ernor. The children in the homes sorrowed 
as they recalled his bright greeting to them 
when he passed through the town. The 
veterans of two wars, citizens of both par- 
ties and of all creeds, mourned as for 
the loss of one of the household. " Our 
governor is gone," they said one to an- 
other. 

It was a time when the depths of senti- 
233 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

ment are touched. He had been a faithful 
servant of the State, a wise administrator, 
a just officer, and a strong leader. He had 
upheld in political life the banner of purity 
and honor. He had done his work well. 
The people loved him, however, not so 
much for what he had done, as for what 
he was. He was a true man, transparent, 
faithful, and chivalric. Moral force and 
spiritual light transfigured his life and 
countenance and made them beautiful 
and radiant. He had entered into the 
hearts of the people and dwelt there. 

Christmas-eve was a day of mourning 
in Massachusetts. Noontime, the day be- 
fore Christmas, is usually the busiest hour 
for shops in the year. At that hour the 
shops were closed and silent. Trinity 
Church, which had been offered for the 
funeral services, was filled with a repre- 
sentative and sorrowing company. Crowds 
234 



THE LAST YEAR 

pressed about the doors. Details of mili- 
tary organizations were present on duty, 
but there was no military pomp. All was 
as simple and sincere as the character of 
him who lay in the choir of the church. 
His two pastors of King's Chapel, Boston, 
and the Unitarian Church at Milton, read 
the service, and the body was borne forth. 

Huntington's mother had written him in 
1865: "After the war is over, we shall 
need wise men, pure patriots in the coun- 
cils of the country, and high-minded gen- 
tlemen, men of large culture, refinement 
of taste. Christian integrity, and virtue, 
more than the soldier." 

From the dying breath of Huntington, 
Roger caught the life of patriotism and 
service. His brother's image went with 
him day by day, and gave him inspiration. 
The body of Roger was laid at rest beside 
that of his brother: fit types of Massachu- 
23s 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

setts in these two generations — a soldier 
who in war and bloody strife gave his life 
to save his country; a citizen who, no less 
chivalrous, gave himself to upbuild his 
country in unity, peace, and righteousness. 

In a noble memorial service citizens of 
the Commonwealth, officials of the nation 
and State, representatives of the religious, 
military and patriotic societies, and mem- 
bers of the chief musical associations of 
Boston joined in a noble service in his 
memory. The governor of the Common- 
wealth presided, and Senator Henry Cabot 
Lodge was the orator. The mass of peo- 
ple, the prayer, oration, and requiem, gave 
eloquent and touching expression to the 
uplifting power of his character. 

Knowing that the people wished to erect 
sofne memorial, a committee of citizens 
offered to receive gifts. Without solicita- 
236 



THE LAST YEAR 

tion and without the mention of the amount 
of any gifts, offerings poured in. 

From fifty newsboys of Park Street cor- 
ner, who lined up every Sunday morning 
to salute the governor as with his family 
he passed them on his way to church, 
came fifty contributions. Hotel bell-boys, 
policemen, classmates, cab-drivers, shop- 
girls, business men, mill-hands, veterans, 
associations of all kinds, militia regiments, 
men and women, boys and girls of every 
station in life, from all parts of the State 
and nation, from Cuba, Porto Rico, the 
Philippines, and foreign countries, sent in 
their gifts. 

When over ten thousand persons and or- 
ganizations, representing from fifteen to 
twenty thousand individuals, had given of- 
ferings amounting to over forty thousand 
dollars within ninety days, the committee 
asked that no more be sent. 
237 



ROGER WOLCOTT 

Thus, by the grateful and spontaneous 
gift of many thousands of men, women, and 
children, a statue of Roger Wolcott will 
speak, to all who pass, of one who in pub- 
lic office as in private station was pure, 
chivalrous, and true. 



238 



Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton &» Co, 
Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A. 



OV 28 W02 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 069 096 A 



